HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



/ 

THE 



HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



BY 

FEAI^KLII^ TUTHILL. 



SAN FRANCISCO: 
H. H. BANCROFT & COMPANY. 

18^6. 



Kntered according to Act of CoDgress, in the year 186fi. 

By H. n. BANCROFT & CO., 

In the Clerk's Ofl3ce of the District Court of tlie United States for the 
Northern District of California. 



PREFACE. 



The following book was written because there 
seemed to be a demand for a History of California 
which should sketch the main events of the country 
from its discovery to the present time. The pioneer, 
under whose observation the most exciting of these 
events have occurred, confesses the need of such a 
book. The thousands who have entered the State 
since it assumed its present peaceful aspect, comj)lain 
of the lack of a succinct story of what had to be done 
here to make the land so pleasant a home. 

The material for a lii story of California is abundant. 
The log-books of ancient mariners who visited the 
coast — the voluminous, if not well-kept archives of the 
Government, while the territory was under Spanish or 
Mexican rule — the official reports and Congressional 
documents about the transfer to the United States — the 
files of newspapers since the land was Americanized — 
the scores of books of intelligent travellers, who have 
put their impressions on record, and the oral evidence 
of natives, and early immigrants, who mingled in all 
the affairs most interesting to us— from these sources 
may be drawn ample details of life in California, from 
dates as far in the j)ast as any but enthusiastic antiqua- 
rians care to retire to. 

There are several histories of California to bo found 
in the libraries, some of them works of permanent 
value. One of the oldest, the " Jesuit Venegas," and 
the authority for the times and phices of which it treats, 
Avas printed a century ago, when the California of the 



Mil PREFACE. 

Txioderns was an unknown land. The history by 
Forbes, the Englishman, and the vahiable report of 
explorations by De Mofras, the Frenchman, each much 
quoted and appreciated in the highest quarters, were 
written while our California was deemed by Americans 
the very remotest land of the globe, farther away for 
all practical purposes tlian the East Indies, more inac- 
cessible than the antipodes. After the discovery of 
gold in California, there was quite an irruption of 
books about the country, and among them a few histo- 
ries, which rendered the outlines of its past career 
familiar, and ministered adrairal)ly to the needs of the 
early adventurers. But since their period, though the 
term, counted by years, is very sliort, all has happened 
that is most stirring in California story. Those events, 
so impossible of repetition, seem, even to the actors in 
them, to belong to a distant antiquity. The sixteen 
years that have elapsed since the American occupation, 
embrace such physical and social changes as oftener 
require a full century for their development. 

No doubt a better history can be written when the 
country is older, and time has more thoroughly tested 
some social experiments that seem already successful. 
But, considering by how large a portion of the popula- 
tion of the State its thrilling story is but dimly remem- 
bered, like a tale told long ago in a far-distant sY»ot, 
concerning lands now familiar, but which the hearer 
never dreamed would become his home, this work is 
cheerfully submitted to the public, in hope that it will 
be received in the same spirit of charity with which it 
was written. 

August, ISOo. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE APPROACUES TO, AXD DISCOVERT OF, CALIFORKIA. 

Hindrances to the Earlier Discovery of California. — Colnmbus.'s Theory left no Room for 
Calilornia on the Globe. — First Voyagers on the Pacitic, — Expeditions sent up the 
Coast bj' Cortez. — His Pilot, Ximenos, discovers Lower California, a. d. 1584. — Ca- 
biillo discovers Upper California, a. d, 154'2. — His Coast Survey Profitless. — Meaning 
of the Word California.— Boundaries of the Country Pages 1—14 

CHAPTER II. 

A NOTABLE ENGLISHMAN- IN CALIFORNIA. 

Inducements to the Exploration of the Coast— The Straits of Anian.— Sir Francis Drake 
about Cape Horn, and on the Pacific. — He Attempts Returning to Europe by a North- 
ern Koute.— Visits California, a. d. 1.579, and names it New Albion. — A I'edestrian Trip 
through the Country. — The Climate gets a Bad Name.— Drake jirobably entered San 
Francisco JJay. — Ueasons for Die Celief. — Lharacteristics of the Natives. — Did the? 
find Gold ? Pages 15—27 

CHAPTER III. 

VISCAINO'S EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE CALIFORNIA COAST. 

Philip II. orders the Settlement of California.— Yiscaino's Settlement at La Paz.— His care- 
ful Exploration of the Coast. A. d. 1602.— Describes San Diego and Monterey.— His 
Crew Suffers from Scurvy.- Did he Visit San Francisco?— The Results of his Voyage 
Wasted Pages 28-36 

CHAPTER IV. 
UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRY. 

Pirates on the Coast.— Futile Attempt of Admiral Otondo and Father Kino to Colonize 
California in 1CS3.— The Jesuits decline the Job.— Topographical Reasons why the 
Spanish Navigators missed the best Harbor on the Coast, Pages 37 11 

CHAPTER V. 

EXPERIMENTS OF THE JESUITS IN CALIFORNIA. 

Jesuit Occupation of the Peninsula.— Fathers Kino and Salva Tierra undertake the Spir- 
itual Conquest of California.— Settlement at Loreto, A. D. 1697.— Their Method with 
the Indians.— .1 Rebellion Met by Coercion.- Jealou.sy of the Jesuits Ilim'ers their 
Success.— Hard Times.— Father ligarte at the Mission.— Kino, from Sonora. furnishes 
Supphe.s.—Efl"nrt to Connect the Settlements of the Peninsula and the Main-Land bv 
a ( hain of Missions.— Overland Excursions IVom Sonora to Lower Calilornia.— Salva 
Tierra"s Unwelcome Promotion, Release, and Death.- Alberoni's Grand Scheme and 
Its Collapse.— The Pioneer Home-Built Vessel.— Ugarte Explores the Gulf.— Geo- 
graphical Surveys.— Ugarte Dies.— A Success.— The 'Missions Relieve the Philippine 



X CONTENTS. 

Galleon. — A Rfbellion. — Life at the Missiofl. — 'Wliippiiig Popular Trith the Indians. — 
The I'ious Fund. — The Jesuits K.Npellcd. — The Franciscans iissunie the Lower Cali- 
fornia Missions. — I5e.sert"s Blast airainst California. — 'I'lie Dominicans Uelieve the 
Franciscans, who (\.v. lT69)i:oto Upper California. — Yenega's History and Ciiriors 
Map T Pages 42— "i I 

CHAPTER Y I. 

OCCUPATION^ OF UPPER CALIFOPNIA BY THE FRANCISCANS. 

Galvez's and Junipero's Expedition, in four Dctachinents, to Settle Upper California. — 
They Rendezvous at San Diego. — A Mission Kstablished, a. d. 1T60. — (iovi-rnor Portala 
visits .Monterey Harbor, Overland, without recognizing it. — Discoveis 8;in Francisco 
by Land. — Imlian Outbreak at San Diego. — Monterey Dis'overed, — Joyful l!ecei)tion of 
the News in Me.xico. — Death of Father Junipero," A. D 1TS4. — Location of the Mis- 
sions. — A Vessel enters San Francisco Bay, June, 17T5 — Order of Establishment of 
the Missions....' Pages 72 — 87 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE ABORIGINES. 

The Aborigiries of Upper California. — Digger Mythology, Ti-aditions, and Customs. — Their 
F*od; Relisions and Social Life; Medical Practice; the Sweat-House. — Burial or 
Burning of the Dead.— Their Ideas of Death Pages 8S— 97 

CHAPTER VIII. 

DETAILS OF THE MISSION SYSTE3L 

The Spanish Policy towards the Indians. — Theory of the Mission System. — The Mission 
Buildinss. — The Indian Itancheria. — Government of the Mission. — The Presidio. — 
Collision of Priests and Soldiers. — The Pueblo of dilferent Kinds. — Political Govern- 
ment of California under Spain. — ElVect of the Manifold Order System. Pages 93 — 110 

CHAPTER IX. 

A CALM HALF CENTURY. 

The Indians take kindly to Mission Life. — .'Vn Era of Tninqnillity. — Number of Domesti- 
cated Indians at diiferent Periods. — Population ot each Mission, .\. d. 1S02. — Thriving 
Times. — Yankees I5uy their Hides. — Fear of ICarthqnakes. — Dread of Foreigners. — 
The Viceroy's Orders to beware of Captain Cook. — Vancouver Well Treated. — Jealousy 
of American Visitors. — lohn Brown at San Francisco. — The Uussian Occupation, from 
1812 to 1842, of aStri]) on the Coast Pages 111—120 

CHAPTER X. 

CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. 

California Accepts Imperial Mexico's Rule (1S22). — List of Governors of California while 
' under Spain. — Becomes a Territory of Uepiiblican Mexico. — Proposal Change of 
Name. — -Jedediah S. Smith arrives Overland from tlie East, a. d. 1826. — The Fur Busi- 
ness. — The Pious Fund diverted from the Ecclesiastics to the Spanish and Mexican 
Governments. — The Mexican Colonization Act of 1824. — Wealth of the Missions in 
1834 Pages 121—129 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE MISSIONS SECULARIZED. 

Trouble Comes. — Governor li^chcandia tries to enforce the Secularization, a. d. 1830. — 
Soliz's Insurrection. — Governor Victoria AiTCSts the Secularization. — The Echcandia 



CONTENTS. XI 



InsiiiTection. — Portilla's Trpncherv. — Victoria Keeps his Promise, and Kelires to' 
AJexiai. — Pu> I'icMi appointed Goveitior by tlie LeL'iblatnre. — Anaicby and Contusion. — 
Figuema arrives ihronsli many Perils. — Divi.-ion of tlie Missions: tlic Spanisli Fran- 
ciseans take those Sontliof Sm Luis Obispo; llie Mexiean Fianeiscans talie tliose North 
of it. — Director IIiJar"s Colony arrives at t^olano. — ihe Missionaries hasten to Destroy 
their Property.— Great Slanprliter of Cattle. — The Colonists Ilevolt, and are Exiled. — 
The Territorial Leirislature turns over the Missions to Governor Figueroa. — Death of 
J'igueroa, a. d. 1835 Pages 130 — 140 



CHAPTER XII. 
REBELLION, SECESSION, UESTOnATION, PANICS. 

Cnstoni-House Quarrel.— Revolution. — Alvarado and Isaac Graham capture the Capital, 
and Proclaim the Independence of Calil'ori.ia. — .\Ivarado crushes out a Rebellion; is 
appointed Governor by Mexico, and Itecognizes Mexico again as the Central Power. — 
Graliani and other Foroiirners Arrested and Exiled, but return again with Honor. — 
Go\eriior Micheltorena arrives. — A I'anic. — Comiuodoro Jones hoists thi> American 
Flag at Monterey. — Hauls it down again, nnil Apologizes. — Alvarado and Vallejo cap- 
ture the Governor's Ammunition.— Micheltorena Invokes Sutters Aid. — Sutter obtains 
a "Gener.al Title" to certain Lands. — The J''(/rei!.'ners stand aside, leaving Mexicans 
and Californians to Fight it out. — The Me.\ici!ns Surrender. — Apparition from over the 
Mountains. — Fremont's Api^earancc. — Lisi of Mexican Governors of California. 

Pages 141—151 

CHAPTER XIII. 

TUE "-NATIVE CALIFORNIANS." 

What they understood by " Independence.''— Character of the People.— Great Riders. — 
Their ilomes, Habits, Food, Dress, and Gardens. — Boston Tr.aders arrive after IS'22. — 
How Justice was Administered. — Whalers in the Port. — Immigrants, and the Impres- 
sion that all is soon to be Americanized Pages 152 — IGl 



CHAPTER XIV. 
FREMONT AND THE BEAR PAUTY REVOLUTION. 

Fiemont's Exploring Party asUs Permission to Rest in the San Joaquin Valley. A. d. 1846. — 
Castro's Fair Promises and Treacherous i'erronnanees. — Freuiont stands a Siege. — Pro- 
ceeds Northward. — Is Overtaken by Lieutenant Gillespie wiih Dispatches from Home. 
— Ilis Camp broken into by Indians.— Fonr of his Party Killed. — Ucsolves to Revo- 
lutionize the Government.— Returns to the Sacramento Valley. — Merritt's Party Cap- 
tures Sonoma. — William!?. Ide's Proclamation. — The Bear Flag. — Lieutenant Ford's 
Exjiedition routs De La Torre's Force. — FreiTio;it Organizing a Battalion. — Arrives at 
Sonoma. — Declaration of Independence, July 5lh. — The Bear Party Absorbed into the 
Battalion. — Fremont gives Chase to Castro Pages 1G2 — 175 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE AMERICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 

Movements of the Ignited States Navy in the Pacific. — Commodore Sloafs Instrnctions. — 
A Race .and its Consequences.— Sloat I'aises the United Slates Flag at Monterey, July 
7th, 1S4G. — British Plots to secure California rendered Futiie. — The United States Flag 
raised at San Francisco.— It replaces the Lear Flag at Sonoma — Fremont anticipates 
Sloat's Messenger, and seizes the Goveinmeiit Arms at San Juan. — Rei)orts to SIcat.— 
The Commodore I'uzzled, and out of Spirits. — Refuses to Accept into Service Fremont s 
Battalion. — Arrival of Commodore Stockton. — He takes Command of theL::ud Forces,— 
Sloat Sails for Home.— Oc nip.ation of the Ports.— Stockton lands at San Pedro; Marches 
his Force to Los Angele.s, and organizes a Territorial Government for California. — The 
Flores's Insurrection at the South Pages 176 — 102 



XU COj^TENTS. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

CALIFORNIA'S THREE CONQUERORS AND FIRST THREE AMERICAN 
GO VERNORS. 

Stockton's Mcasnroa to Quell the Insurrection. — Captain Mein-ine's Party Eepulsed near 
Sau Podro, by the Califoinians. — News of General Kearny at San Pasqual. —Stockton 
sends liini timely Keliof. — Kearny arrives at San Diego. — The Advance upon L03 
Ansclcs. — The Enfrairenient on the Plains of San Gabriel. — Stockton re-enters l^os 
Anireks, January IDth, 1S47. — Fremont's Battalion moves Southward. — He Pardons 
Jesus Pini. — A Toilsome March. — Fremont makes and Proclaims the Treaty of Co- 
iiensa.— Delicate Eelations of Stockton, Kearny, and Fremont. — Fremont Reports to 
Stockton. — Fremont as Governor. — Seven Weeks of Tranquil Splendor. — Kearny and 
Shiihrirk join to depose him. — Proclamation Ignoring the Conenga Ti'eaty. — Fremont's 
Famous i;i<l('^Is refused an Interview with Kearny, except 111 Presence of Colonel 
Mason. — Fremont Disobeys Orders. — Stevenson's liegiment Airives. — Fremont goes 
East under Arrest. — Ills Trial and Sentence — Kefusesthe President's Clemency, and 
Retires from the Service Pages 193—213 

CHAPTER XVI I. 
SAN FRANCISCO AMERICANIZED. 

The Land Escapes Mormonism. — Yerba Buena's Change of Name. — Its Newspapers. — 
Benieia. — First Alcaldes of San Francisco. — First Mayor and the Aynntamiento. — Pub- 
lic Meetings. — Overland Immigrants Snow-slayed East of the Sierra Nevadas. — Terrible 
Suft'erings of the Donner Party. — Meeting of Indiirnation concerning Fremont. — 
Growth of San Francisco, and its Sudden Depopulation Pages 214 — 225 

CHAPTER XVI II. 

THE GOLD DISCOVERY. 

Gold Discovered at Coloma, January 19th, 1S49. — Governor Masons Visit to the Placers. — 
His Iteport to the War Department. — IJow the News was Keceived at the Ea?t. — 
Previous Hints of Gold in California. — Circumstances of the Discovery of 1S4S. 

Pages 226—284 

CHAPTER XIX. 

GRAND RUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 

Peace between the United States and Mexico. — Terms of the Treaty.— The California Fever 
a World-wide Epidemic. — They come in Companies with strange Ventures in Rotten 
Bottoms. — Isthmus and Overland Immigrants. — The Grumblers. — Theories of the 
Gold Production. — Simultaneous Settlement of the Mining Region. — Society. — Crime 
and its Punishment in the Mines. — iVuomalous Method of Civil Government. 

Pages 235—248 

CHAPTER XX. 

CONGRESS FAILS TO PRO VIDE A GO VERNMENT. 

Unavnilin',' Efforts to gi%c California a Government. — Polk's Request and the Wilraot Pro- 
viso. — Senators Coruin. Callioun, Benton, and Dix on Califori.ia, — Clayton's Bill Passi s 
the Senate, and is Defeated in the House. — Congress does nothing for California, 1S47- 
'4S. — President Polk's Letter to Californians. — Colonel Benton's Letter to the Same. — 
The Congress of lS4S-'49. — Douglas's State Bill Adversely Reported.— A Special Com- 
mittee Reports Favorably. — Senatorial Discussions. — Dayton says thev can cet a Con- 
stitutional Convention oidy by using the Lasso. — Webster advises a Military Govern- 
ment—Proposition to Cede back California to Mexico. — A Territorial Bill put on the 
.\pproiiriation Bill.— Dix reiirets the Gold Discovery.— Webster and Calhoun Debate 
Coiistitulional Questions. — A Stormy Sunday Morning Session. — Foote Raves. — Jeffer- 
son Davis would Sacrifice California' to the Ap]Mopriations.— The Senate Recedes, and 
California gets no Government — Revenue Laws E.'itended over California. 

Pages 240-261 



CONTENTS. Xili 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE COKSTITUTIOKAZ CON^VEXTIOX. 

The People of California Establish a Government. — CJovernor Riley's Proclamation for a 
State Convention.— Ek-ction of Dolegiitcs. — Small Vote Oast— Constitutional Conven- 
tion meets at Monterey, September, 1S49. — The Antecedents of Members. — Organiza- 
tion of the Convention. — Slavery Prohibited Forever. — Debate coneernin^j; Negro Im- 
migration. — State Boundaries. — The Slavery Question. — Lotteries, Duelling, Schools, 
Bank.s. — E.xpenses of Convention. — Concluding Courtesies. — The Peoi)le Adopt the 
Constitution Pages 262 — 283 

CHAPTER XXII. 

TUE FIRST STATE LEGISLATURE. 

Meeting of the First Legislature at San Jose. — Governor Eiley surrenders his Anthorily as 
Governor to Governor Burnett. — Fremont and Gwin elected U. S. Senat<u's. — The 
Legislature's Keputation and Work. — Rate of Interest. — Foreign Miners' I.icense. — 
Utah's Curious Petition. — Brief History of the Cities Chartered. — San Francisco's 
Growth. — The Hounds. — Sacramento. — Counties Organized. — Meaning and Origin of 
their Names Pages 2S4--306 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

WAITIXG ON COA^GRESS FOR ADMISSION' TO THE UNION. 

President Taylor's Message, advising the Admission of California. — Admits that he urged 
the People to Organize a State. — Clay's Compromises Projwsed. — California's Admis- 
sion discussed by Senators Foote, Mason, Davis, Clay, King, Calhoun, Webster, and 
Seward.— Bell's Compromise Res<dutions.— Debate on the Compromises submitted by 
Clay's Select Committee. — The California Bill passes the Senate. — Ten Senators Pro- 
test. — It passes the House, and is approved by the President, September. 1850.— The 
other Compromise Measures.- Repose. — What Disturbs and Ends it. . . Pages 306 — 8'23 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

■' THE FALL OF '49 AND SPRING OF '50." 

News of the Admission into the Union celebrated. — The Tent Era. — Flush, Thriftless 
Times.— Cost of Living in the "Fall of '49 and Spring of '50."— The Scarcity of Fe- 
males. — Character ot the Population. — All try the Mines. — The Currency. — Wages 

Labor Honorable with all.— State of the Market— A Wet Winter.— Style 'of Houses.— 
Fires in San Francisco.— Mining Rushes.— Squatter Riots.— GambliuL', Lynch Law, 
Politics. — Conservative Influences at Work. — Sources of State Pride and Hope. 

Pages 324—345 

CHAPTER XX y. 

AFTER THE ADMISSION. 

Product of the Mines. — New Mining Methods. — Quartz-Crushing and Water-Ditches. 

Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce. — The Markets alternately Bare and Glut- 
ted. — Population of the State. — The Indians and Indian Wars. — Corresiioiulence be- 
tween Governor Bigler and the U. S. Agents concerning the Indians. — War Debt. — 
Reservations. — The Chinese Welcomed at first, but soon' Disliked.— Their '-Houses." 
Habits, Worship, and Employments. — A Chinese Fight. — Excitement in the Legisla- 
ture about Negro Testimony ." Pages 346—378 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

GRO WTU AND HINDRANCES OF THE TO WNS AND CITIES. 

San Francisco's Prop-ess. — Real Estate. — Land Claims. — The Limantour Fraud. — E.vorbi- 
tant Taxes. — The Peter Smith Judgments and Sale of City Propcrt}'. — Sacramento — 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Fires and Floods.— Marysvillo. — Stockton. — Nevada City. — Grass Valley. — Placorville. 
— Oihei- Towns and Gitii'S. — Frequent licmuvals ol' the Caijiial Pages 379 — 3U2 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
FILLIBUSTEniS2I. 

William Walker. — His Sonora Expedition. — Its Ingli rioiis J"nd. — The Mexican and French 
Consuls at San Francisco tried I'or Violating the Neutrality Laws Pages 303 — 401 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

A FINAXCIAL STORM. 

The Financial Storm of 1855.— Failure of Page, Bacon & Co.— The Adams & Co. Muddle.— 
Their Uooks lost and found —Alfred A. Colien, Isaiah 0. Woods, and Trenor W. Park. — 
Sketch of the Career of '-James King, of VVni."— The Banker turned Editor.— The 
Subjects of his Assault.— Palmer, ('iMik\t ('o.— State Finances in a Bad Way.— Water- 
Froiit Extension. — Franchise-Hunting. — The Courts Pages 402 — 412 

CHAPTER XXIX. 
POLITICS. 

Early Democracy of the State.— Governor Burnett.— Governor McDougall. — Governor 
Bigler. — Tammany and Chivalry Yv'iUL'-s of the Democratic Party. — Douhle-headed 
Convention of ISiH.— Know Noihing Victoiy. — First Election tor U. S. Senators. — 
Fremont and Gwin chosen. — Failure to elect Fremonfs Successor in 1S51. — Weller 
elected in 1SV2.— The Struggle (jf lbr)4.— Broderiek heaten. — Gwin still kept out of the 
Vacant Seat in 1855. — Narrow Eseape from Ilinry S. Foote's Election in ItoO. — llow 
San Francisco and Sacramento Voie. — The real Ruling Classes.— Lynchings.— Increas- 
ing Violence and Crime Pages 418 — 431 

C H A P T E R XXX. 

THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 185G. 

Assassination of "James King, of Wm.," hy Supervisor Casey. — Formation of the Vigil- 
ance Committee. — Newspaper Treatment of the Assassination. — Great Public Excite- 
inont. — Tile Pulpit on the Vigilance Alovement. — Casey taken Ironi the Jail by the 
p^.^,lll^.. — King's Burial. — Generous Provision for his Family. — Casey and CoraExe- 
cute'd by the Viirilance Committee. — Burial <if tlie Executed. — Billy Mulligan's Life, 
Dream, \.i\t\ Suicide. — Governor Johnson asks for Federal Arms in vain. — The Com- 
mittee make some laiimrtant Arrests.— Non-ariival of the <'xpected J;eacti<m. — Ele- 
ments of Opposition to the Popular Movement. — A Law and Ordor Meeting. 

Pa.ses 452—451 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

COLLISIONS WITH THE STATE AUTHORITIES. 

Governor Johnson proclaims San Francisco in a State of Insurrection. — lie orders out tlie 
Militia. — Fort Gunny-Bags erected. — Citizens petition the Governor to withdraw his 
Proclamation. — He tiirows the Uesiioiisildlity on the "Insurgents.'" — General Sherman 
Kesigns his Major-Generalship of Militia. — News of ConKreSsiiian Herbert's Murdering 
a Waiter. — Constitution and Method ot thi' Vigilance Committee. — Its Arms and Funds. 
— Meetmg of Sympathizers. — Great Vigilance Mass Meetinc. — The Patent Ballot-Box. 
— Governor Johnson appeals to President Pierce for Aid, but receives none. 

Pages 45.i— 472 

CHAPTER XXXII. 
THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ASSUMES MORE DOUBTFUL POWERS. 

A C.tse of Piracy alhged.— State Arms seized hy the Vigilants.— One of their Agents 
stabbed by Judga Terry.— A General Alarm. — Vigilants Capture the Armories. — Volney 



CONTENTS. XV 

E. Howard's Official Report uf Affairs. — Jiulsre Terry in the Vigilants' Jail. — Commis- 
sioners frum Sacrairi'nto ijleail fur him. — The Governor Ripufliates the Coniinission.-^ 
Terry's Kriendsin th(f United Slates Senate. — Senators concerning the N'i^ilance Com- 
mittee. — Ubiiinitoiis M<;Gowan. — The Banished tryinji to return. — Execution of lleth- 
erinston and Urace by the Visilants. — A. A. Green gets the Pueblo Papers by a Strat- 
agem. — How tlie Vi5:ilants got them from him. — Vigilance Respect for Federal Aiitlioi^ 
ities. — Judge Terry discharged Pages 47o — 198 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE VIGILAyCE COMMITTEE DISBANDS. 

The Supreme Court resumes Work. — The Vigilance Committee preparing to surrender 
Power — Danger of being emwded into Polities. — Grand Final Parade. — Addi-essof the 
E.'cecutive to the General Committee. — Head-Quarters under Public Inspection. — State 
Arms retained. — The "Pirates" Acquitted. — The Rooms closeil. — Results of the Vigil- 
ance Committee's Work. — List«f the K.xecuted and Banished. — Popularity of the Move- 
ment. — The Rev. Dr. Scott iu Trouble. — .Members annoyed by Suits. — The Prochimatioa 
of Insurreetiou witlulrawn Pages 499 — 517 

CHAPTEE XXXIV. 

PRESERVING THE FRUITS OF THE REFORM 

Organization of the People's Party. — The Reformed City Government— Better Times. — 
Comparis n of Municipal K.^penses before and alter the Revolution. — Method of the 
People's I'arty Pages 5iS— 524 

CIIAPTEB XXXV, 

FINANCIAL BREAKERS. 

The State's Interest not p.iid. — An Unconstitutional Debt. — Vision of Threatening Repa- 
diation. — The Debt assumed by a Popular Vote. — RestoraSion of the Civil Fund to the 
State refused. — Indian War Claim admitted. — State and Local Debts, and what to show 
fortheiij Pages 52o — 531 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

LAND TITLES 

Uncertainty of Land Titles. — Congressional Legislation concernins them. — Board of Land 
Commissioners.— Suffering entailed by every Decision, liight or Wrong. — Attorney- 
General Black's Sinsaiional CommuBieation. — Instances-i^uoted by him of Fraud r,a a 
grand Scale. — A Hetter Era Dawning Pa<^<'s 632 — 542 

CHAPTER XXXVII- 

BITTER PARTY STRIFES 

Governor Johnson's Administration. — The State Prison Blimder. — Bate.s's De.'alcat!<»n. — 
Broderick is King of Caucus, and is elected U. S. Senator. — Gwin and Latham aspire 
to the vacant Seat. — Why Broderick gives it to Gwin. — Latham's Version of his De- 
feat. — Gwin's Letter provini; the Bargain and his Abasement. — Broderick breaks with 
the Administration. — The Fugitive Slave Law tried.— The Campaign of 1S.")9. — Brod- 
erick declines a Challeuge. — His first Stump Speech. — Broderick, (xwin, anil Latham 
enjoying great Freedom of Speech. — Attitude of the Republicans. — Greeley's Advice. — 
Pixley's Pamphlet. — Latham wins Pag'S 543 — 560 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

BRODERICirS DEATH.— NOTABLE DUELS 

Jadge Terry challenges Broderick. — The Challenge Accepted. — The Duel. — Broderick 
mortally wounded. — His Death ajid Biudal. — Colonel BjJv^t's Kulogy. — Baker's Life and 



XVI CONTENTS. 

Death.— r.roderick's Will.— Terry's Eesi2:ntition.— The Farce of hi.s Trial.— NotaWe 
Dufls. — Gilbert killed by Denver in 1852.— G. Pen Johnston kills !3eMati>r Feririisun in 
lS5s. — Piercy killed by Showalter in 1S61. — Senator Hann announces Broderiok's Death 
to the U. S. Senate Page.s 561 — 5T1 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 

A POLITICAL REYOLVTIOK 

Latham elected Senator in Broderick's Place. — Governor Downey vetoes the Bulkhead, 
and achieves extraordinary Popularity. — The Water-Front Question happily settled. — 
The State votes for Lincoln. — Lpgislature of 1S61. — Free Gifts of Kailroad Franchises. 
— General MclJouscall elected U. S. Senator. — A Eepublicau State Ticket elected. — The 
LegisLitures of 18(32, 1SG3, and 1864 ,. Pages 5T2— 581 

CHAPTER XL. 

RELATIONS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

Perilous Position when the Southern States began to secede. — A. Sydney Johnston, com- 
manding the Pacific Department, relieved by General Sumner. — The great Union 
May Meeting, 1861. — The Press, and the Pulpit for Union. — Kev. Dr. Scott prefers 
Peace. — hnportant Servicesof T. Starr King. — His Method, Death, and Burial. — Politi- 
cal Parties <in the War. — Downey's Fatal Sentence. — Democratic State Convention. — 
Edmund Randolph's Crazy Speech. — Stanford elected Giovernor. — G'.vin's Hypocrisy. — 
Latham rides two Horses, and Is thrown. — McDougall disappoints the Union Men. — 
Conner's Course. — Party Organisations sacrificed f( r Union. — Low elected Governor. — 
The Supreme Court Judges. — California's Contributions to the Army. — Gifts to the 
Sanitary Fund. — The Spe'cific Contract Act. — Adherence to a Metallic Currency. — Tax- 
ing the Mines. — Californians in the Army and Navy. — ^In Rebel Service. — A California 
Pirate. — Arrests of Disloyal Persons.^ — General Wright's prudent Course. 

Pages 582-600 

CHAPTER XLI. 

RESOURCES OF THE STATE. 

The Grold Yield. — ^Profit of the various Modes of Mining. — ^Late Rushes out of the State. — 
Loss of Population in certain Districts. — ^Useful Mineral Products of the State. — The 
Mining Stock Mania, 1863-4. — An Irruption of Prospecters. — Valuable Mineral Dis- 
coveries. — i\.grlculture. — Manufactures. — Exports, and luiiwrts. — Arrivals and Depart- 
ures. — Insolvencies, — ^The Cm'rency Pages 601 — 615 

CHAPTER XLI I. 

QUARRELS WITH NATURE— COMPENSATIONS FOR APPARENT 3JISF0R- 

TUNES. 

Earthquakes, Floods, and Drought.— The Flood of ]S61-'2.— Is there any Danger of another 
such ?— Rainless Years— Compensation of Fires, Floods, Droughts, and Rushes.- Much 
of the appareat Loss a real Gain to tho Miaing Towns Pages 616—627 

CHAPTER XLI 1 1. 



THE PEOPLE AND TUE PROSPECT. 

Salubrity of the Climate.— What Diseases are not Uncomnion.— Society ""^pMlT iiiiproving, 

—The Schools.- " ' •■ ■ - ^^ mu.i,,...„ 

The Wine Que 



—The Schools.— Disproportion of the Sexes.— Sabbath Observance.- The Dashaways.— 
jestion.— Charities. — The Indian Remnant. — Failure of the Reservation 



Svstem.— The Chinese Puzzle.— Communications with the Atlantic States.— Overland 

lj[ail The Pony. — Telegraph across the Continent.— Awkward Task of the Historian. 

— Tlie Statu on the Threshold of Us Greatness.— xVlready a Mother of Territories and 



States 



Pages 628—644 



THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER 1. 

THE APPROACHES TO AND DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. 

It was about half a century after Columbus chap. 
found America that the first discovery was 
made of Upper California. It was thirty-seven 
years later that the first Englishman set eyes 
on its soil. Still later, by one hundred and 
eighty-nine years, the first permanent settlement 
in it was successfully attempted. There was 
not enough known of its resources to attract 
much attention, until the American conquest of 
California, which occurred seventy-eight years 
later still, or three hundred and fifty-five years 
after the discovery of the New World. 

The statement of Herodotus, that winged 
serpents guarded the cinnamon-trees of India, 
though historically fabulous, was poetically 
true enough ; for though no such fantastic 
creatures as the historian described ever stood 
guard l)y any tree of earthly growth, the dis- 



2 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOE^STIA. 

CHAP, eases that hover over the spice-gardens on the 
,__^_ verge of tropical jungles were scarcely less dan- 
gerous ol:)jects to encounter than winged ser- 
pents would have been. The dragons that so 
long protected from plunder or enjo}'ment the 
depositories of our California gold, the bound- 
less opulence of our Pacific resources, commer- 
cial, agricultural, and mineral, were the reports 
carried back to Spain and England by succes- 
sive navigators of intense cold in these middle 
latitudes, and of storms perpetually raging 
along our coast ; the concealment of our har- 
bors under thick and frightful fogs, behind 
reefs of outlying rocks or sand-bars, over which 
the breakers seemed to make a continuous 
breach ; on the east, a sturdier dragon still de- 
fied approach — desert wastes, and impassable 
mountains of great breadth, whose frosty peaks 
and ridges were unbroken, except at far-distant 
passes, that only the most careful search re- 
vealed. During the course of three centuiies 
the unceasing demand for safe harbors along 
the coast, the fact that pirates nestled in its 
sparse bays to the terror of lawful traders, sto- 
ries of pearls in the rivers and gold in the soil, 
the sharp rivalry of empires conflicting for 
wider possessions, the assurance that whoever 
enjoyed its ports would control the avenues of 
the rich commerce of the Indies — all these mo- 
tives conspired in vain to tempt to its thorough 



DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA. 3 

exploration and settlement. It will never cease char 

to be a wonder how, so Ion 2: after it was , ' 

mapped, siicli a land lay hidden and almost for- 1500. 
gotten, while explorers rummaged all corners of 
the earth beside, and dragged the sea for fresh 
prizes in the domain of Geography. 

It was some years after the great Genoese 
found his new world before geographers com- 
prehended that there M^as room enough on the 
globe for the land of which we write. When 
Columbus argued to the professors of Sala- 
manca his pet and prolific theory of the rotun- 
dity of the earth, the wisest of them did not 
dispute its truth ; but he shared with them the 
error of allowing too little length for a degree 
of longitude. In consequence, he looked in the 
vicinity of Florida for Marco Polo's famous 
Island of Cipango — the Japan of our maps ; 
and the best charts of his day advanced the 
eastern boundary of Cathay or China as far 
east as the Sandwich Islands. So, when he 
came across the islands that picket the West- 
ern Continent, lie had no doubt that he was 
near the threshold of the Eastern. When he 
had coasted scores of leagues along the south- 
ern shore of Cuba, and the crazy condition of 
his ships and his disheartened men made it 
necessary for him to turn to the eastward again, 
he took the sworn statements of all on board 
his fleet, from the captain to the ship-boy, in 



4 THE niSTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, confirmation of Lis own opinion tliat they had 
'_^ visited the eastern extremity of Asia. On his 

1502. fourth voyage to America, in 1502, he diligent- 
ly searched from the Bay of Honduras to Porto 
Bello, for the strait that the Spanish geograj^h- 
ers believed must communicate between the 
Gulf of Mexico and a sea lying to the west- 
ward. But no such coveted outlet could he 
find, and he died firm in the faith that in cross- 
ing the Atlantic he had navigated the only 
ocean that divided the western edge of Europe 
from the eastern fringe of Asia. But as suc- 
ceeding explorers pried into and retreated from 
each large river's mouth along the northern 
shore, investigated the whole curve of the Mex- 
ican Gulf, souo;ht alon<>: the Caribbean Sea and 
up the broad La Plata, but everywhere in vain, 
for an opening westward, the islands, that most 
had held the new lands to be, grew beyond 
controversy into a continent — ^but not the East- 
ern Continent, for the natives everywhere per- 
sisted in the story that to the westward (and 
many of them said, not far off) lay an ocean. 
It piqued the chai't-makers and the hardy navi- 
gators alike that it could not be reached. 

1513. That honor was not long reserved for Balboa, 
a noble Spaniard, who had settled with a colony 
of gold-seekers at Darien. In the year 1513 
his guides took him to the top of a mountain, 
whence they told him that both seas might be 



DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTH SEA. 

seen. Pushing up to its summit, lie found it as chap. 
they had said. When the vision of a limitless ^_^_, 
expanse of waters to the south met his gaze, 1513. 
he fell on his knees, and, with uplifted hands, 
thanked Heaven for the honor of being the 
first European that had beheld *' the sea be- 
yond America." Then descending to the shore, 
he waded waist deep into the water, and took 
possession of it, and all the lands it washed, 
for Spain. 

But the first European to sail on the waters 
of Balboa's " South Sea beyond America " was 
Fernando Magellan. This zealous and courage- 
ous Portuguese navigator had sailed as far east 
as the Malay Islands, where his countrymen 
were slowly efi^ecting a settlement. But be- 
coming dissatisfied with the remuneration he 
was receiving for his services, he went over to 
Spain, and without much difficulty convinced 
the court, inflamed by reports of the mines 
in Mexico, where about that time Cortez was 
urging his imperial conquests, that the coveted 
Spice Islands might be reached by sailing west- 
ward. There was a famous com23act then ex- 
isting between those maritime rivals, that what- 
ever new lands might be discovered beyond 
the meridian one hundred and eighty degrees 
west of the Azores, should belong to Spain ; 
and all east of that line were to be the prop- 
erty of Portugal. Spain could not resist the 



6 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

OHAP. temptation to gain a point by intrigue when 
.,_^_^ projected on so grand a scale, and Magellan 
1520. was speedily dispatched with five small ves- 
sels to come up l:>y a westward route behind 
the Portuguese possessions in the Malay Ar- 
chipelago ; and so, while adhering to the letter 
of the compact, to obtain a claim to that gar- 
den of the East which, without a question, 
the compact was intended to secure to Portu- 
gal. 

Arrived off the South American main, Ma- 
gellan left no gulf or inlet unexplored that 
promised an opening westward. On the 21st 
of October, 1520, he entered the strait between 
the mainland and the Island of Tlerra del Fue- 
go, which he named " The Strait of Ten Thou- 
sand Virgins," but which, ever since, has been 
known as the Straits of Magellan. He was 
sixty days threading this channel, crooked and 
thick-set with islands. Behind every headland 
that he passed a new creek opened or a new 
river emptied. The tide rose and fell thirty 
feet. The water rushed backward and forward 
like a torrent. The overhano-ino- cliffs were 
capped with snow, yet a flaming mountain — so 
they reported— was generally in sight on the 
south. At last from this horrid place his little 
fleet emerged into an open sea, so calm, so gen- 
tle, so unlike the turbulent Atlantic, that he 
named it the Pacific. Once upon its bosom, 



COETEZ ON THE PACIFIC COAST, 7 

his course lay westward towards tlie Philip- chap. 
pines. Northward of his track no one yet had ,_^_ 
sailed on all this ocean. I52i. 

But Cortez (in 1521) had completed the 
conquest of Mexico, and from the capital 
to both oceans the Spanish dominion was ac- 
knowledged. It was with no little curiosity 
that he awaited the return of the explorers he 
had sent out to find the western border of his 
New Spain. The next year he had the pleas- 
ure of announcing to his emperor that his 
agents had in three places discovered the South 
Sea. The responsive command to explore both 
coasts for an oj^ening between the oceans, he 
welcomed as a relief from the languor that 
began to annoy him. It was comparatively 
an easy task to scour the eastern coast from 
Panama to Florida. But on the west he had 
work worthy of his genius ; for, first of all, 
there were his harbors to find, then his ships 
to build, and then a sea of unknown perils to 
navigate, which as yet no keel had ever vexed. 

But, to a man like Cortez, difficulties are a 
spur, and repeated failures are sharp incentives. 
He fitted ship after ship, and sometimes fleets 
of them, determined to know not only what 
sort of face the land he had conquered pre- 
sented to the west, but also to be sure that no 
strait were left undiscovered, north or south, 
by which Spain might reach the Spice Islands 



O THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, without doubling tlie Cape of Good Hope; 
^_^1^ and it was his special purpose to inspect defi- 
1534. nitely the stormy channel through the conti- 
nent where Magellan had passed from ocean to 
ocean. In 1534, one of his men, a mutineer 
and murderer, discovered Lower California, and 
was murdered there. Cortez had given to Be- 
cerra the command of one of two ships that 
were sent out to learn the fate of a missino; 
vessel of a previous expedition. Becerra's crew 
mutinied under the lead of the pilot, Ximenes, 
a native of Biscay, who continued the voyage, 
crossed the Gulf of California, and landed. 
While near the bay afterwards known as La 
Paz, Ximenes and twenty of his Spaniards were 
killed hj the Indians. The vessel, however, 
returned, with a good report of the country, its 
people, and its pearls. 

During the same year, Cortez, seeking for 
the Moluccas, which he thought to be no great 
distance oif, conducted in person an exploring 
expedition to the north. He left Tehuantepec 
with four ships ; three of these were soon 
stranded along the coast. The one in which 
he himself sailed reached the gulf and the 
peninsula. From that time the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia was known as the " Sea of Cortez ;" 
though when, soon afterwards, it was more 
explored, it gained the name of the Red or 
Vermilion Sea: perhaps from some resemblance 



LOWER CALIFOENIA DISCOVERED. 9 

of its outline to tlie Eed Sea that separates chap. 
Egypt from Arabia ; perliaps from tlie color of v_^_ 
its waters near its liead, as seen after tlie Colo- 1534. 
rado had diso-oro-ed into it a torrent more than 
usually turbid. Cortez hoped to plant a colony 
on the peninsula ; but the discontent that grew 
out of the sufferings of the little company from 
famine, from excesses when relief came, and 
from repulses by the Indians, made him glad 
to hear the appeals from Mexico for succor, 
that gave him an excuse to retreat from his 
undertaking and return. 

In 1537 he dispatched three ships, under 1537. 
Francisco de Ulloa, who entered the Gulf of 
California, explored it to its extremity, then 
doubling the Cape, went up the western coast 
of the peninsula to -about the twenty-ninth 
degree of north latitude. Ulloa, after a year's 
absence, brought back accounts of a bare vol- 
canic land, peopled by poor men — of " no coun- 
try, in short, worthy the second visit." And 
now the conqueror's conceit of rich islands and 
vast territories of unbounded wealth was quite 
deserting him. For all his princely outlays he 
was reaping no profits either of glory or of 
gold. 

But that very year Mexico enjoyed a fresh 
sensation. Of three hundred Spaniards, who, 
ten years before, landed in Florida to conquer 
it, four survivors wandered across to Cu- 



10 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 

CHAP, liacan, whence tliey were sent to the capital. 
^_^^_^ There they tokl such stories of the pearls and 
1537. other riches that abounded on the coast of the 
South Sea, that all Mexico was fired for explo- 
rations. Cortez and the Viceroy Mendoza, with 
equal zeal, sprang to new enterprises. But the 
projects of the two were irreconcilable, and the 
star of the viceroy was in the ascendant. Cor- 
tez remained chafing at home, harassed by the 
lawyers, while the viceroy perfected his ar- 
rangements to send off, for the conquest of " the 
countries and islands north of Mexico," an army 
of a thousand men by land, and another by 
sea. Orders were given for the two armaments 
to meet in latitude thirty-six. The land forces 
penetrated northward by way of Sinaloa and 
Sonora to where they found seven wi'etched 
towns, with a population in the largest one of 
but four hundred men. The houses, though 
constructed of earth and unhewn logs, were 
occasionally of several stories in height. These 
places they identified as " the seven large towns, 
inhabited by civilized nations, with mountains 
round about, rich in metals and gems," and 
" the large town of Quivira, with houses seven 
stories high, celebrated for its riches," which a 
zealous Franciscan had reported to exist, and 
on whose representations as much as on those 
of the Florida wanderers the expedition was 
founded. In three years the inland army re- 



DISCOVERT OF CALrFOPvlSriA. 11 

turned, sick, tliinnecl, and disheartened, report- chat, 
ing a country barely tolerable, and but narrow- ^_^ ' 
ly removed from the character of a desert. 1540. 
Meanwhile the fleet had achieved the disgrace 
of its commander l)y a very speedy return with- 
out the slightest advantage gained. They went, 
according to account, to the appointed place on 
the thirty- sixth degree of north latitude, which 
would have heen up the Colorado Kiver, above 
the Mohave Indian country ; they erected some 
crosses, buried some bottles containing letters? 
and then went back ao;ain. As we hear noth- 
inor fm'ther of this landino; in so hisi-h a latitude, 
as it was not spoken of as a point beyond pre- 
ceding explorations, and as the commander of 
the fleet was disgraced, it is probable that there 
was some mistake about it, though that Alarcon 
was the discoverer of the mouth of the Colo- 
rado, about the year 1540, is not disputed. 

Cortez now embarked for Spain, never to re- 
turn. Before he left, however, he saw himself 
deserted by one who had always followed his 
fortunes. Pedro de Alvarado, ambitious of 
rivalling Cortez as an explorer, having asked 
of the emperor and received a commission, con- 
tracted for the building of twelve ships, a gal- 
ley, and some smaller vessels, and for their thor- 
ough outflt with men, horses, arms, and pro- 
visions. To make his enterprise more sure, he 
allied himself with Mendoza, the viceroy, but 



12 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, sufferino; deatli at the hands of the Indians, 

I • • 

,_^^_, whom he had cruelly oppressed, his ships were 

1540. left to rot in their harbors, until Mendoza re- 
fitted a portion of them, two of which he sent, 
under Juan Eodriguez Cabrillo, a native of Por- 
tugal, to explore the western coast of California. 

1642. Cabrillo left Natividad June 27, 1542. He 
touched on the peninsula of Lower California, 
ran up the coast, and often landed to cpiestion 
the docile Indians. In the Santa Barbara re- 
gion he saw large houses, and being told by 
the natives that in the interior there lived 
white men, he wrote those white men a letter, 
and gave it to the Indians to be forwarded. 
When about on the fortieth degree of latitude, 
he saw mountains covered with snow, and be- 
tween them a large cape, which he called De 
Mendoza (Mendocino), in honor of the viceroy. 
. On the 10th of March, 1543, when in forty-four 
degrees, the cold being very intense, his provi- 
sions exhausted, and his ships in bad condition, 
he turned southward again, and sailed back to- 
wards Natividad. 

The value of this expedition lay simply in 
the information it brought back of the trend 
and direction of the coast. Cabrillo fetched 
home no account of snug harbors, or of places 
proper to plant colonies in ; indeed, the impor- 
tant geographical facts of his discovery seem 
to have been soon forgotten. The date which 



DISCOVERY OF CALIFOElSriA. 13 

marked an era — the starting date, indeed, in Cal- chap. 
ifornia history — was no era to the cotemporaries 
of Cabrillo. The viceroy sent out no succeed- 1543. 
ing expeditions. Being soon afterwards pro- 
moted to the viceroyalty of Peru, he had little 
further opportunity to extend his researches; 
and the solitary enterprise of his successor in 
that direction proved a perfect failure. The 
efforts that had been put forth with so little 
profit for twenty years, to learn the configura- 
tion of the western coast of America, were in- 
termitted for more than half a century. 

The meaning of the word California^ and 
how it came to be applied to the land we live 
in, is not to this day a settled matter. Vene- 
gas, the Jesuit historian, thinks that some 
words of the Indians having a sound similar 
to it, were mistaken by the* Spaniards as the 
designation for the country, though investiga- 
tion showed that the Indians did not so call it. 
Others have supposed or guessed that the name 
was deliberately framed by the Spaniards fi'om 
the Latin calida fornax — a hot furnace. But 
this is improbable, as the Spaniards were not 
in the habit of manufiictuiing names by any 
such classical process ; nor were men who were 
used to the heat of Acapulco likely to speak 
of any 23ortion of California as a furnace, in com- 
parison with that oven of cities. 

The name first appears in the account wi'it- 



14 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, ten by Bernal Diaz, of one of Cortez's expedi- 
tions, lie applying it only to tlie gulf. From 

1543. this it seems to have spread to include all of 
the region that Spain claimed northward of 
Mexico on the Pacific, or west of the Gulf 
of California. 

If a geographer of the time of Cabrillo had 
attempted to bound the region known as Cali- 
fornia, he would have said that it extended 
from the Vermilion Sea of Cortez and the 
ocean on the south, northward past Cape Men- 
docino, to the Straits of Anian, which separate 
America from the confines of Tartary; that 
eastward it was bounded by Canada, and on 
the southeast by a wild desert tract that cut 
off access to it from New Spain, above the ter- 
mination of the Vermilion Sea. 



FEANCIS DEAKE IN CALIFORNIA. 15 



CHAPTER 11. 

A NOTABLE ENGLISHMAN IN CALIFORNIA. 

HiTHEETo there liad been three great induce- 
ments for prosecuting explorations in the North- 
ern Pacific : First, a desire to find a route from 
Europe to the Indies, the Straits of Magellan 
being the only water passage yet known, and 
a return through them from west to east being 
industriously represented as quite impractica- 
ble. Second, the hope of finding rich regions 
that wcuild rival the Spice Islands in the prod- 
ucts of their forests, and the mines of Mex- 
ico in precious metals. Third, the ardent zeal 
of the Catholic sovereigns, inspired alike by 
policy and piety, to convert the heathen and 
give unknown nations to the Church. But now 
a new motive was added. A rich trade be- 
tween the Philippine Islands and Spain was 
springing up. Every year a great galleon from 
the Malaysian Archipelago crossed the Pacific 
to Acapulco, whence its freight was conveyed 
either to Panama or across the continent to 
Vera Cruz. To avoid the eastei'ly trade-winds, 
this galleon made the coast of America as far 



1543. 



16 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, nortli as Cabrillo's Cape Mendocino, where the 
.^J^ northwest winds were generally blowing, and 
1578. from which point there was still a long voyage 
of some eighteen hundred miles to Acapulco, 
with no known harbors on the way into which 
she might put on emergency for supplies or 
repairs. 

Then there were the Straits of Anian, much 
talked of by mariners and believed in by geog- 
raphers, which were supposed to sepai'ate Asia 
and America ; and the fancy was that they led 
eastward to the Atlantic, somewhere about 
Newfoundland. Suppose the English, who 
were beginning to be a threatening power on 
the sea, should force that upper passage and 
some fine morning appear with a fleet oif Aca- 
pulco or Panama ! What was to hinder their 
taking any port they pleased, or snatching all 
the plunder of captured galleon or sacked 
cities that they had the heart to covet or the 
shij^s to carry away? Or if there exist pro- 
found peace between England and Spain, the 
latter had not a single settlement north of Cu- 
liacan, and the doctrine was not then admitted, 
any more than now, that the i:>lanting of a cross 
in a land conferred a title to it that the next 
squatter sovereign could not cloud the day he 
took possession. x\s the S];)aniards debated, 
the shadow of what they most dreaded stalked 
in upon them. 



DRAKE OiS" THE PACIFIC. 17 

England and Spain were at peace, but no chap. 
love was lost between them. Queen Elizabeth ^^' 
had no hesitation in smiling upon the under- 1573. 
takings of Francis Drake, who, " on his own 
account, was playing the seaman and the pi- 
rate," "had got a pretty store of money to- 
gether," was fast earning the name of "Sea- 
King," and already " was very terrible to all 
Spaniards." On his third voyage to the West 
Indies and the Spanish Main, he was led to 
" that goodlie and great high tree " on the Isth- 
mus of Panama, from whick both oceans are 
visible at the same time. 

As he looked out on the vision that had so 
affected Balboa sixty years before, he was " ve- 
hemently transported with desire to navigate 
the South Sea ; and falling down there upon 
his knees, he implored the Divine assistance 
that he might at some time or other sail thither 
and make a perfect discovery of the same, and 
hereunto he bound kimself with a vow. From 
that time forward his mind was pricked on con- 
tinually, night and day, to perform his vow." 

Five years later he set sail again, with great 
secrecy, for America, his fleet consisting of live 
vessels ; the largest of one hundred, the small- 
est of fifteen tons! His own "ship" was 
named the Pelican ; but afterwards gloried in 
the designation of the Golden Hind. Three 

of the five survived to enter the Straits of Ma- 
2 



18 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, gellan, wliicli tliey threaded in tlie course of slx- 
,___^ teen da^s. This was in the fall of 1578. They 
1578. found " what they call the Pacific, or Calm 
Sea," whipped into fury by a tempest. The 
storm separated the adventurous vessels, and 
the Pelican it drove Jis far south as the fifty- 
seventh degree of latitude. Nearly two months 
she was hurled backwards and forwards about 
Cape Horn. Drake plainly made out that here 
the continent was at an end — that the Atlan- 
tic and Pacific met. Here, then, was a route, 
not an inviting one indeed, yet one that ships 
might take to return from the Pacific towards 
Europe. It was a discovery of great value, for 
though by the time he made it a lost one of 
his own fleet had forced a passage eastward 
through the Straits of Magellan, he had ac- 
cepted as true the Spaniard's doctrine that such 
a thing was scarcely possible ; and no Avonder, 
as to this day, for sail-vessels, it is not often 
deemed practicable. 

After waiting duly for his delinquent ves- 
sels, Drake pushed northward in the Golden 
Hind alone. Off Arica, in the harbor of Cal- 
lao, and elsewhere, he plundered ship after ship 
of its silver, silks, and costly gums. He cap- 
tured the great galleon and appropriated her 
treasure, avoided Panama, paused at Acapulco, 
and refitted during a single day. 

But when the Golden Hind was getting over- 



THE CLIMATE REVILED. 19 

burdened with her precious freight, the ques- chap. 
tion grew troublesome, "What should he do _,^_^ 
with it?" He had no fancy for Cape Horn, 1579. 
though that tedious way had no such teri'or for 
mariners a century later, as his name had at 
that time for all that sailed. He did not doubt if 
he returned, that he would find a Spanish fleet 
waiting^ off the Straits of Ma2:ellan to sink him. 
As he had seen the oceans meet at the South, he 
believed they must meet, too, at the North, It 
suited his adventurous spirit to slip away from 
his enemies by a road they never had heard of, 
and sail back into some old English bay, laden 
with a grand discovery, as well as with gold 
and silver, pearls and spices, from the Orient. 

Home, by a northeast passage, then, was his 
determination, and he soon found himself off 
the coast of California in exceedingly cold 
weather. The Rev. Mr. Fletcher, chaplain of 
the buccaneer's fleet, writes a distressing ac- 
count of the inclemency of this wretched coast. 
If it had been his misfortune actually to enter 
the Arctic Ocean, where our bold whalers now- 
a-days rather like to summer, and occasionally 
even winter, he would have suffered from an 
exhaustion of his vocabulary of freezing adjec- 
tives before reaching- Behrino-'s Straits. 

On the 3d of June, 1579, in latitude forty- 
two — that is, the southern line of Oregon — the 
crew complained grievously of " nipping cold ;" 



20 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, the rio-o-ino- was stiff, the rain was frozen. In 
^„_^^ latitude forty-four — that is, off Umpqua City — 
1579. their hands were benumbed, the meat was 
frozen when it was taken from the fire ! 

On the 5th of June they ran in shore, and 
cast anchor in a bad bay, where, when the thick, 
vile fogs lifted, they were not without danger 
from violent gusts and flaws of wind. Finding 
it no place to stay, they got to sea again as 
soon as possible. It was probably here, if the 
story which the Spanish historians tell is true, 
that he left behind him his Spanish pilot, Mo- 
rera, who afterwards made his way overland 
down to Mexico ; and a hard pedestrian excur- 
sion he must have found it — that first white 
man toiling through thirty-five hundred miles 
or so of strange territory, the amazement of a 
laud full of savasres. 

Drake and his companions would seem to 
have gone as high as forty-eight degrees, and 
then to have been driven southward by a wind 
that they could not face. In thirty-eight degrees 
they found a fit harbor, though there the low 
hills were covered with snow, entered it, and 
tarried thirty-six days. 

Now it is possible that the Golden Hind hap- 
pened along our coast when our usually charm 
ing weather was "not at home." Such mis- 
haps have occurred before now, that a climate 
has lost reputation because, at just the time 



THE CLIMATE OF CALIFOENIA. 21 

when an observer was prepared to note it, both. chap. 
barometer and thermometer agreed to depre- »_^_, 
ciate its average excellence. It may possibly i57'j. 
have been a cold June that " the oldest inhab- 
itant " among the natives told of for half a cen- 
tury afterwards. 

But another explanation is quite as probable. 
The Golden Hind had been for months loiter- 
ing in the tropics. To men just emerging from 
the soft, southern gales, the winds of our tem- 
perate zone, though charged with only frost 
enough to make them bracing and grateful to 
the acclimated, are rasping. Drake's crew had 
no relish for the northern passage, no taste for 
rugged weather, and in their dread they met it 
half way. Then Shasta and the Oregon moun- 
tain peaks, generally capped with snow in early 
s«mmer, quickened their sensitiveness, and 
made them veiily believe that they had prema- 
turely confronted an Arctic clime. 

Fletcher's excessive caution to prevent such 
a conclusion, itself suggests its probability. He 
argues the causes of the extreme cold, and an- 
ticipates the objection that they felt it the 
more from their recent arrival from equatorial 
regions. The general's admirable regimen, he 
says, secured them from any possible suffering 
on account of sudden transitions of lines of 
latitude; and then he speaks contemjDtuously 
of youi^ " chamber company, whose teeth in a 



22 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, temperate air do beat in their Leads at a cup 
__^ of cold sack and sugai* by the fire." The 
1579. sprightly chaplain had the whole story to him- 
self: there were no previously written accounts 
for his to conflict with, and it must be admit- 
ted that he made a good apology, and all the 
more plausible for being indirect, for the aban- 
donment by Drake of his deliberately formed 
purpose to go home to England by the Straits 
of Anian. 

Those much-talked-of Straits, we know, as 
happily for our curiosity they did not, lead up 
to a frozen ocean which, may as well, for all 
commercial purposes, have no connection with 
Atlantic waters. Drake troubled his head no 
more about them, for on leaving the California 
coast the Golden Hind steered for the Philip- 
pines,, and so, by the way of the Cape of Good 
Hope, went back to Europe — the first craft that 
ever made the circuit of the globe with the 
same commander on board who took her out 
of port. 

Drake named all the land he had seen here- 
abouts New AlbioUy the white cliffs I'eminding 
him of his native coasts, and su2:2:estin2: the 
happy compliment that his loyalty seconded. 
English books after that spoke of New Albion 
as " Drake's land, back of Canada." 

But where is the bay that Captain Drake — it 
was later that he was knighted and was called Sir 



DRAKE IN SAN FEANCISCO BAY. 23 

FnuicLs — spent those thirty-six days in? Where chap. 
is the quiet nook so shielded from raw winds, _^_ 
so free of fogs and gusts, so altogether j)leasant 1579. 
and secure that even Chaplain Fletcher, with 
his bones aching from past cold, has for it no 
word of abuse ? 

From time immemorial, until lately, it was 
presumed to be San Francisco. But Humboldt, 
in correction of the common belief, remarked 
that Drake's port was farther north, under the 
parallel of 38° 10', and was called by the Span- 
iards Puerto de Bodega. Later writers, in cor- 
rection of Humboldt, hold that it was a curve 
in the coast under the lee of Point Reyes, and 
which, on the modern maps, is marked as 
Drake's Bay. In support of this theory, it is 
urged that Drake's Bay is in latitude 37° 59' 
5'", w^hich corresponds within a minute to the 
statement of Drake's chronicler, who made the 
latitude 88° ; that the clifl's in the vicinity of 
that bight are white, resembling England's in 
the neisrhborhood of Dover, and that if he had 
really entered San Francisco harbor he would 
not have been silent as to its excellence. 

These reasons would seem quite insufficient 
to rob San Francisco of the claim to Drake as 
its discoverer. Its latitude is 37*^ 59', to which 
that given by Drake's chronicler is quite as near 
as those early navigators, with their compara- 
tively rude instruments, were likely to get. 



24 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

The cliffs about San Francisco are not remark- 
ably wliite, even if one notable projection, inside 
1579. the Gate, is named "Lime Point;" but there 
are many white mountains, both north and 
south of it, along the coast ; and Drake named 
the AV'hole land — not his landing-place alone — 
" New Albion." They did not go into ecstasies 
about the harbor — they were not hunting har- 
bors, but fortunes in compact form. Harbors, 
so precious to the Sj)aniards, who had a com- 
merce in the Pacific to be protected, were of 
small account to the rovins: En2:lishman. But 
the best 2:)ossible testimony he could bear as to 
the harbor's excellence were the thirty-six days 
that he spent in it. 

The probabilities are, then, that it was in San 
Francisco Bay tliat Drake made himself at 
home. As Columbus, fiiiling to give his name 
to the continent he discovered, was in some 
small measure set right by the bestowal of his 
name upon the continent's choicest part, when 
poetry dealt with the subject, so to Drake, 
cheated of the honor of naming; the finest harbor 
on the coast, is sLill left a feeble memorial, in 
the name of a closely adjoining dent in the coast 
line. 

To the English, then, it may be believed, 
belongs the credit of finding San Francisco Bay, 
though the Spanish had long before named and 
mapped points on the coast farther north. Of 



DRAKE CLAIMS THE LAND FOR ENGLAND. 25 

tills, liowever, Drake was ignorant, and in chap. 

• TT 

Queen Elizalieth's name he took possession of the ^_^1^ 
land, and erected a monument in token of tke i579. 
fact — " a plate nailed upon a faire great poste, 
whereupon was ingraven her Majestie's name, 
the day and year of our arrival there, with the 
free giving up of the province and people into 
her Majestie's hands ; together vnth her high- 
ness' picture and arms, in a piece of five-pence 
of current English money, under the plate, 
whereunder was also written the name of our 
general." 

The natives, who were robust, powerful, un- 
suspecting, and kindly, lived in huts by the 
water-side, and were found huddled around the 
fires in their huts, midsummer though it wsiS. 
The men were naked ; the women wore deerskin 
blankets over their shoulders, and mats of 
rushes around their bodies. They brought to 
the Englishmen presents of feathers and to- 
bacco, harangued them with speeches, and, mis- 
taking them for something more than mortals, 
proposed to worship them. This the visitors 
declined ; and, to show that they too were sub- 
jects of a Higher Power, they themselves had 
divine worship in the presence of the Indians. 
Then, with much ceremony, with singing and 
dancing on the part of his attendants, the king 
of the Indians approached and placed upon the 
admiral's head a crown of feathers, and made 



26 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, liim a present of liis whole kingdom ; all whicli 

tlie admiral accepted in the name of his sov- 

1579. ereign, and in memorial of it, as well as of his 

visit, erected the monument spoken of above. 

The narrative pi'oceeds : — 

" Our necessarie business being ended, our 
general, with his companie, travailed up into 
the countrey to their villages, where we found 
hearcles of deere by 1000 in a companie, 
being most large and fat of bodie. We found 
the whole countrey to be a warren of a strange 
kind of Connies. * * * The people do eat 
their bodies, and make great accompt of their 
skinnes, for their king's coat was made out of 
them." — " There is no part of earth here to be 
taken up wherein there is not a reasonable 
quantity of gold or silver." 

All this is very extraordinary. The deer 
have not yet vanished from the wooded parts 
of the land. The squirrels still remain in count- 
less numbers, to annoy the farmers in the val- 
leys. But about the gold ? 

The Europeans of that day had very con- 
temptuous notions of any portion of the New 
World which did not sparkle with gold or sil- 
ver. The chronicler of Drake's voyage remem- 
bered that, and wrote : " The earth of the coun- 
try seemed to promise rich veins of gold and 
silver; some of the ore being constantly found 
on digging." It is ungracious to question the 



EAKLY EEPOETS OF GOLD. 27 

veracity of travellers wlio brouglit liome so chap. 
many indisj^utable truths ; but it is significant, >_^_ 
that the Indians whom they met wore no isYo. 
golden ornaments, as the natives of lands usu- 
ally do where gold is so very abundant ; and 
none of Drake's successors have had any similar 
good luck in their explorations of the vicinity 
that it is supposed he visited. 



lis THE HISTOEY OP CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER m. 

YISCAJNO'S EXPLORATIONS ALONG THE CALIFORNIA 
COAST 

CHAP. The time had come, when, unless Spain 
■ would consent to let go quietly a vast region 

1596. that might be a ban^en desert, or might be an El 
Dorado — unless she would see her bitterest foe 
inherit, before her own decay, an immense terri- 
tory that she had eai-ned by discovery — unless 
she would see her Indian possessions fronted by 
her spoiler, the time had come for action. In 
1596, Philip IL, from Madrid, forwarded a dis- 
patch to Monterey, Viceroy of Mexico, conjuring 
him to explore and seize California. In accord- 
ance with this command, Viscaino, with three 
ships, sailed from Acapulco, crossed over to the 
peninsula, established a garrison, built a small 
church, and out of the branches of trees con- 
structed some rude huts at La Paz — a name 
given to the bay and the new settlement in 
token of the peaceful reception that they re- 
ceived from the Indians. But speedily they 
ran across the misfortunes that seemed to be 



VISCAIlSrO AT SAlSr DLEGO, 29 

inseparable from all enterprises in tlie Gulf, chap. 
and were compelled to return, abandoning tlie 
settlement before tlie expiration of the year. ico2. 

Philip III., hearing the result of the attempt, 
gave orders to survey the ocean side of the 
peninsula. Viscaino, cheerfully accepting the 
charge, left Acapulco with three vessels, in the 
spring of 1602, for an expedition that proved I602. 
notably successful. The unceasing head-winds 
made the passage up the coast tedious and slow, 
but that gave the better opportunity to survey 
it faithfully. At Barbary Bay (near Cape St. 
Lucas) he found a well-behaved people, incense- 
trees, pearly shells, and salt. About Magdalena 
Bay he found friendly though naked savages, 
frankincense, and eatable mussels. He stopped 
at several points before reaching Cerros Island, 
where there were " affable Indians," some pearls, 
little wood, and brackish water. On Cerros 
Island they observed a bald, painted mountain, 
for its sides were streaked with different-colored 
veins ; and a seaman, who, because he came from 
Peru, was presumed to be a judge of precious 
metals, gave his opinion that it was entii'ely 
made up of gold and silver ! They saw, as they 
sailed, " ill-smelling but precious amber enough 
to load a ship." 

On the 10th of November they entered the / ^ O 2L. 
harbor of San Diego, where they saw a forest 
of tall, straight oaks, shrubs reseml:>ling rose- 



30 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, mary in savor, and many fragrant and whole- 
^____, some plants. They stopped here ten days, and 
1602. were delighted with the mildness of the climate, 
the excellence of the soil, the look of the land, 
which they accurately surveyed, and the docility 
of the Indians, who besmeared their bodies with 
paint and loaded their heads with feathers. The 
harbor abounded with fish, the flats with shell- 
fish, the woods with game. 

At sea again, they saw frequently the smoke 
of fires burning on the hills, which they inter- 
preted as sure tokens that the country was in- 
habited, and as invitations for them to land. 
On the Island of St. Catalina they saw savages 
who had a temple, and worshipped idols with 
sacrifices ; who sold fish to those who dwelt on 
the mainland, and were shrewd thieves. When 
in Santa Barbara Channel, the cazique offered 
to give the strangers ten wives apiece if they 
would settle among them. Occasionally they 
wen-t on shore, and had mass celebrated. The 
harbor, where they anchored on the 16th of 
December, 1602, under the Point of Pines, 
they named Monterey, in honor of the viceroy 
who managed the fitting out of the expedition. 
From this point, one ship was sent back to 
Acapulco to report progress. The others, after 
a tarry of eighteen days, during which time they 
had made out that the place furnished fine, 
large pines fit for masts, and oak excellent for 



VISCAINO AT MOjSTTEREY. 31 

ship-timber, that the harbor was secure against chap. 

• • • TTF 

all winds, and that the natives were so docile 
that their conversion would be easy, pushed 1602, 
still farther northward. Disease, however, had 
thinned their numbers and weakened most of 
those who still survived. Sharp pains were 
continually shooting along their bones. They 
were painfully sensitive to the keen, cold winds. 
Purple spots broke out upon their flesh. Their 
teeth were loosened in their gums, " even so 
that, unawares, they spit them out." To tell 
their story in a word, they were sadly afflicted 
with scurvy. 

In twelve days after leaving Monterey, a 
favoral^le wind — it was about the only favor of 
the sort they could boast — carried the flag-ship 
"past the port of San Francisco;" but, the 
smaller vessel having been separated from her, 
the ship put back into that port and waited. 
The barefooted Carmelite who accompanied 
and wrote the story of the expedition, clearly 
states that the flag-ship "put back into the 
port Francisco," where a ship, that was sent 
out from the Philippine Islands to survey the 
California coast, had been driven ashore and 
lost, eight years before. The pilot of that lost 
ship was chief pilot of Viscaino's vessel, and he 
affirmed that, fi^om the wreck, large quantities 
of wax and several chests of silks had been 
landed. 



32 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. The reader is naturally puzzled, at first, on 
^___, seeing the name used as familiarly as if our 
1002. matcliless harbor were already well known to 
the Mexicans, especially as the writer speaks 
of some place in this very vicinity. But there 
is not the slightest probability that Viscaino 
entered the harbor of modern San Francisco, 
" The flag-ship," says the record, " came to anchor 
behind a point of land called La Punta de los 
Keyes." Doubtless it was the bight outside and 
north of the Heads. It is not possible that Vis- 
caino, who was on a hunt for harboi's, could have 
sailed through the Golden Gate into the best 
harbor north of Acapulco, without making spe- 
cial mention of so perfect a j^lace of safety. He 
would have felt that his expedition was an en- 
tire success, if he had been able to report to the 
viceroy that, at the very point where the great 
circle of the trade- winds touched the coast, he 
had found a good retreat and recruiting-place 
for the Philippine galleon, where wood and 
water were easily obtained, and abundant secu- 
rity furnished against every storm. He who 
had spoken so glowingly of the harbors of San 
Diego and Monterey, would not have neglected 
a eulogy on that of San Fi'ancisco, if he had 
ever seen it. He would not have spoken of it 
only as a place where a ship had been driven 
ashore by the violence of the wind. Drake may 
have entered it, and yet not be struck with its 



VISCATNO'S EXPLOBATIOlSrS. 33 

capacity to accommodate a fleet, for lie was chap. 
Bated with tlie sight of uatural wonders. Gold ,__^_, 
and ad venture were his objects — not safe anchor- leos. 
ing-places. 

Wherever it was, Viscaino finished his sur- 
veys in a day, and moved on again slowly to 
the northward. On the 12th of January, he 
made some high, red mountains, and beyond 
them, farther northwest, some snowy moun- 
tains, whicli he judged to be Cape Mendo- 
cino. But herig they encountered one of the 16O8. 
dra2:ons that had Q-uarded the coast so lon<2:. 
They fell in with a violent gale, accompanied 
with sleet, and it was intolerably cold. There 
were but six persons on board able to keep 
the deck ; all the rest were down with scurvy. 
On the 19th, they saw high mountains, cov- 
ered with snow, which, from their color, and 
the fact that they were seen on the eve of St. 
Sebastian, they called Cape Blanco de San Se- 
bastian. 

The smaller vessel went, probably, as high 
as the mouth of the Columbia E-iver, where, 
finding they were beyond the point to whicli 
the viceroy's instructions authorized them to 
sail, and with a sickly crew, th^ ofiicers put 
about to return to Acapulco. At the high- 
est point that they reached, they found a large 
river, its banks covered with ash-trees and 
willows, whose pleasing appearance tempted 
3 



34 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOP.JNIIA. 

CHAP, tliem to land ; but, the currents hindering them, 

,_^_, they turned toward the south, and sailed for 

1603. . home, firmly believing that the current which 

they could not stem was the Strait of Anian, 

through which the fabulous ship had passed 

from the x\tlantic to the Pacific. 

The fiag-ship, in returning to Acapulco, kept 
before a favoring wind near enough to shore for 
the explorers to see that the coasts were cov- 
ered with verdure, and, from the fires, they 
. judged them to be populous; but the crew 
were too much thinned and enfeebled to permit 
the closer examination they had proposed to 
make on their return. 

Viscaino was exceedingly anxious to repeat 
his expedition, but before doing so it was ne- 
cessary to obtain the permission of his Span- 
ish Majesty. He went to Spain, and urged 
the affair at court with great assiduity. He 
met a courtier's fate. He was promised, and 
promised again, rebufi'ed, encouraged, and put 
off, until, quite disheartened, be returned to 
Mexico. 

In a subsequent letter of Philip IH. to his 
agents in Mexico, we find how much better report 
Viscaino had made of the Pacific coast than had 
ever before been given. He represented the 
country as carpeted with verdure, the climate 
mild, the land covered with trees, the soil fruit- 
ftd. The chief subsistence of the people weie 



TLSCAIISro'rf FAVOEABLE EEPOETS, 33 

the spontaneous products of tlie earth and the chap. 
plentiful objects of the chase. Their clothing _^_, 
was made of the tanned skins of sea-wolves. 1603. 
They had an abundance of flax, hemp, and cot- 
ton. He heard that in the interior there were 
large towns, silver and gold, and veins of other 
metals. 

The monarch, apparently, labored under the 
impression that Viscaino visited the coasts of 
Japan and China, which he evidently thought 
were but a little distance off. He ordered a 
search to be made for Viscaino, and, if found, 
that the command of a new expedition be 
given to him. The veteran in his retirement 
heard the news with joy, and prepared with 
alacrity to engage in fresh enterprises, but, 
being suddenly overtaken with a fatal illness, 
the royal commands were never executed. 

Worse than that. The charts that Viscaino 
made with so much difficulty, were carelessly 
treasured, or, in their transfer to Spain, were 
lost, and in a few years the results of his costly 
explorations were forgotten. 

It was one hundred and sixty-six years be- 
fore the harbor of Monterey was visited again, 
and San Diego, "well watered and well 
wooded," and its bay, " spacious enough to con- 
tain many ships," and the smaller bay contig- 
uous to it, passed as entirely out of mind as 
if they had never been mapped. Such sorry 



36 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, results could scarcely have come of such 

III . . 

,__^__, grand undertakings if there had been news- 

1603. papers in those days, to serve up, in popular 

form, the story of brave adventurers, or print, 

in solid columns, the official reports of their 

officers. 



ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRr. 37 



CHAPTER IV. 

UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO COLONIZE THE COUNTRY. 

It was a great grief to Spain, when tliere was chap. 
leisure between Iter wars to consider it, that ,_^1^ 
California could not be conquered and peopled. 1683. 
During many succeeding years, traders fre- 
quently sent down pearls of great value, ob- 
tained on the west coast of the gulf. There 
were current many stories of inland discoveries 
to the northward, and of the wealth that ad- 
venturers found. Then there were pirates 
infesting the Pacific, making their head-quar- 
ters in the California harbors ; and these, 
though quiet the rest of the year, were sure to 
sally out when the Philippine galleon was due. 
Attempts were repeatedly made to re-discover 
the harbors already described, and bring them 
into use ; but all were in vain. 

There was a well-planned effort made for the 
conquest of California in 1683, which, for a 
while, promised fairly. It was under the com- 
mand of Admiral Otondo, though its spiritual 
government was intrusted to Father Kino by 
the Jesuits, upon whom it was conferred by 



38 THK TIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, special warrant from Spain, and witli the for- 
lorn liope that, by a joint effort of Clinrcli and 

1683. State, a permanent settlement of the country 
might Le effected. They sailed up the gulf, 
and once more California was taken possession 
of in the name of the Spanish Majesty, with the " 
usual imposing ceremonies. The admiral spent 
his time in coastwise and inland explorations, 
while the religious members of the company, 
making La Paz their head-quarters, and having 
erected a church but three months afterward 
near San Bruno Bay, set to work learning the 
languages of the natives. It was very tedious, 
but the learners were in earnest, and it was not 
long before they had translated into the Indian 
tongue the chief articles of the Christian creed. 
They did not escape the difficulty always 
experienced by missionaries in finding native 
terms to express ideas of which the untutored 
heathen has no conception. On one occasion 
they took some flies, and, putting them under 
water in the presence of the Indians, waited 
till the insects seemed to be dead; then, placing 
them on the warm ashes in the sunlight, told the 
natives to watch until they came to life again. 
As one after another the flies were restored to 
vitality, and began to stretch themselves and 
clean their wings for a flight, the exclamation 
of the watchers was accepted as the proper word 
by which to render the idea of resiuTcction. 



FAILURE OF THE ATTEMPT. 39 

But there came a droua-lit of eighteen montlis' chap. 

^ TV 

duration. Hardships innumerable followed, _,^J^ 
and so much sickness, that the most sanguine 1G83. 
debated whether the enterprise must not be 
abandoned. Just then came orders for the ves- 
sels to put to sea, to take under convoy the Phi- 
lippine ship, for which the Dutch privateers were 
waiting ; and so was precipitated the end of an 
effort which had cost three years of time and 
large appropriations of the royal revenue. 

The viceroy next endeavored to engage the 
Society of Jesuits to undertake the reduction of 
California, promising them, as material aid, 
$40,000 a year, to be paid annually out of the 
king's treasury. The chapter thanked him 
for the honor conveyed^ in the invitation, but 
foresaw too great inconveniences in taking upon 
itself such rugged temporal engagements, and 
declined. It professed a readiness, however, 
always to supply the necessary missionaries to 
accompany any future expedition that might be 
planned. 

Thus, after nearly two centuries of repeated, 
costly efforts, it was resolved on the part of 
Spain that the projects which Cortez and the 
kings attempted in vain must be abandoned ; 
and California was left to the unrestrained ten- 
antry of its naked natives ; though the most 
fabulous reports of its wealth were credited, 
and every year the absolute necessity to the 



40 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

GKAP. East India trade of a good harbor on the coast 

,__^ was made the more apparent. 

1683. The mountain system of Upper Califoi-nia, 
when studied on the modern maps, furnishes 
much apology for the incompetence of the Span- 
iards to effect an earlier settlement, and espe- 
cially for missing the best harbor. A series of 
mountain ranges lies almost parallel to the 
coast ; indeed, for most of its extent, the surf 
beats the broadside of a rocky mountain. There 
is only one perfect, noteworthy fissure in the 
range, and that, widened by the currents, con- 
stitutes the Golden Gate which opens into San 
Francisco Bay. At the Point of Pines the range 
strikes the sea. Between that point and the 
Santa Cruz range the ocean excavates the Bay 
of Monterey. To the same fact, that the moun- 
tain ranges are not exactly parallel with the 
coast, we are indebted for the roadstead of San 
Luis Obispo, the Santa Barbara Channel, and 
the Bay of San Biego. When the old naviga- 
tors, sailing northward, saw the peaks of a dis- 
tant range draw nearer and nearer to the sea, 
they might naturally expect it soon to strike 
the sea at a sharp angle, and just north of that 
they would look for anchorage. But at San 
Francisco the range is abruptly broken. It is 
an exception to the rule, and they failed to note 
it. Bemember, too, the thick fogs that so often 



t.lILUEl; OF TiriU ATTEIIFI. 41 

veil the Golden Gate, and it will seem less chap 

• • • IV 

strange tliat tliese early navigators missed it. ^_ 

The Jesuit historian, in commenting on these 1683. 
repeated failures, sees the hand of Providence, 
for the glorification of religion, in the fact that 
not until majesty and power and wealth had 
exhausted their resources, and confessed their 
inability to cope with it, was the work done. 
In the same spirit, the American Christian sees 
that it is Providence who now will send a suc- 
cession of earnest, indefatigable, religious men 
to wrestle with and subdue the land ; and after 
them, a race of quiet, easy, comfortable priests 
to possess it, tame its wildness, bring to view 
the mild, serene enjoyments so natural to it, 
travel unsuspicious over its hoarded wealth, 
seed and stock it, and plant vineyards in a few 
favored spots ; develop, though feebly, its agri- 
cultural resources, and then, with scarcely a 
struggle, surrender all to another people, of a 
reformed faith and more progressive practice. 



42 THE HISITOTIY OF OALIFOENIA. 




1697. 



CHAPTER V. 

EXPERIMENTS OF THE JESUITS 117 CALIFORmA. 

The Father Kino, or Kiihn (as it was in his 
native German), wlio attended Otondo in his 
unsuccessfnl attempt to plant a colony and a 
mission at La Paz, was not a man to retreat 
li'om a project once undertaken. While hold- 
ing the professorship of mathematics in a Span- 
ish college, highly esteemed, quietly enjoying a 
life of leisure, and with a prospect of a large 
fortune before him, he was taken exceedingly 
ill. When lying, as he supposed, at the very 
verge, of death, he made a vow to Saint Francis 
Xavier that if he should recover, that saint 
should be the model of his life. He did re- 
cover, resigned his professorship, and came to 
Mexico. But before long he grew jealous of 
the tranquillity of his new career. He em- 
braced with delight the hardships promised in 
Otondo's expedition, and certainly had no 
cause for disappointment in that respect. When 
the barrenness of the land and its utter poverty 
forced its abandonment, he, if no others, was 



EITTHUSIASTIC PIONEERS. 43 

determined that it sliould be only temporary, chap. 
He was inflamed with a desire to conquer Cali- .__J^ 
fornia for the Church — an object to which he 1697. 
devoted his life. He travelled widely through 
Mexico, persuading, pleading, arguing with his 
Jesuit brethren, to enlist their sympathies with 
his. That he might the better accomplish his 
ends, he sought and obtained the appointment 
of " Superintendent of the Missions of Sonora^" 
Their contiguity to the land which it was his 
ambition to convert gave him facilities, no 
other way attainable, for watching over and 
devising means to subdue the barren Canaan 
of his hopes. Fortunately, as he travelled on 
one of his mission tours he met, and infected 
with his own zeal. Father Juan Maria Salva 
Tierra, who soon became his equal in enthu- 
siasm. For a while the two struggled in vain. 
The Society of Jesuits, the Viceroy of Mexico, 
the King of Spain saw in it nothing but a chi- 
merical experiment, in which, with an empty 
treasury, there was no temptation to embark. 
But in 1697, eleven years after Father Kino 
began to preach his project, Salva Tierra was 
authorized by the Jesuits to raise contributions 
for the spiritual conquest of California. He 
found a valuable colaborer in Father Juan 
Ugarte, professor of philosophy in the College 
of Mexico, a shrewd manager of temporal 
affairs, who undertook to act in Mexico as 



44 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORI^IA. 

CHAP, agent for the conquerors wliile tliey were in 

, _ the field. 

1697. It was not long before the funds were pour- 
ing in, and when they accumulated sufficiently 
an expedition was fitted out. There were but two 
conditions required of the colonists by the royal 
council : first, that they must not waste any 
thing belonging to the crown, or dra^7 on the 
treasury, without the king's express order; 
second, that they were to take possession of 
all territory in the king's name. They were 
empowered to enlist soldiers for their guard 
at their own expense, and to appoint officers 
of justice for the land they should conquer. 

Salva Tierra and his little company of six sol- 
diers and three Indians crossed the gulf from 
the mouth of the Yaqui, and pitched their first 
encampment, which they called Loreto, on the 
Bay of San Dionysio, thirty miles south of San 
Bruno. It was a place green with trees and 
grass, and rich in its convenience to sj)rings of 
fresh water. The barracks for the garrison 
were built, and the tents for a chapel set up, 
before whose door was planted a crucifix, and 
on it displayed a garland of flowers. On the 
25th of October, 1697, possession was taken of 
the country in the name of the king. 

Father Salva Tierra at certain hours of each 
day read to the Indians, who gathered for the 
purpose, prayers and parts of the catechism,. 



LIFE AT THE MISSION". 45 

whlcli he translated to the best of liis ability, chap. 
with the aid of the papers that the mission- ,____, 
aries of Otondo's expedition had preserved. 1097. 
Then, in order to learn their language, he 
wrote down their discourse. The Indians were 
veiy much amused with the blunders that he 
made, but he took their banter kindly, and 
made fine progress. When these labors of the 
day were over he distributed to each Indian an 
allowance of boiled maize, and so teacher and 
taught made a very good start. 

It was scarcely a month, however, before the 
Indians, who greatly admired the boiled maize, 
and were even willing to take the catechism to 
get it, began to pilfer from the corn-sacks, and 
so improve upon the daily half-bushel allow- 
ance. The attempt to prevent this provoked 
them to plot the murder of the whole company, 
that they might get all the corn. This calam- 
ity being happily averted, the Indians called 
their brothers from many miles around, to take 
counsel how to crush out the little colony. 

These were touoih times with the handful of 
soldier missionaries. They were obliged to 
keep constant watch, and they suffered sadly 
from the intense heat of the sun by day, and 
still more from the heavy rains at night ; against 
which, being misled by the continued drought 
that Otondo reported, whence they inferred 
that it never rained in California, they had 



46 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, made no provision. Still, wlien the assault came, 
^^ _^ they were ready for it, and the ten men of the 
i69r. garrison withstood the attack of the five hundred 
savages. When the enemy retreated, the pious 
victors saw to their amazement that the pedes- 
tal of the cross had cau2:ht most of the arrows, 
while the cross itself and the chapel tent were 
untouched, and only two of the soldiers were 
wounded. The Indians, driven bach now by 
force, were afterwards won to friendship by 
kindness ; and Salva Tierra's letters to Mexico 
were so full of modesty and gratitude for the 
preservation and success of the mission, that to 
lour of them was accorded the honor of publi- 
cation ! 

And now for two years all things went 
smoothly. The missionaries widened by de- 
grees their circle of influence, and made an 
occasional tour of exploration into the interior. 
The next trouble was one that the native doc- 
tors or sorcerers stirred up, because their craft 
was in danger; for they very naturally and 
correctly suspected, that if the strangers should 
introduce a new religion, the prophets of the 
old would find their occupation gone. So 
thinking, they encouraged a rebellion ; but the 
appetite for boiled maize, of which they could 
of course get none w^hile hostilities were main- 
tained, brought the rebels to terms again. 
Once the vessel with supplies from the main 



TROUBLE AT THE MISSIOJN". 47 

failed to arrive before the whole stock was chap. 
reduced to three sacks of poor meal and three ._^_, 
of maggoty maize. Fortunately, the twenty- 1697. 
two soldiers that constituted the camp were 
" cheerful and devout," and the supplies came 
before their courage failed. 

There was a solitary grumbler in the camp, 
however, whose letters home did much mischief 
among the friends of the mission. The worthy 
captain of the garrison had been compelled by 
a trouble in his eyes to return to Mexico. His 
successor felt his subordination to the fathers 
irksome, and in his correspondence found much 
fault with their management. His representa- 
tions might have produced no bad effects, if 
there had not already grown up in Mexico 
much jealousy of the Jesuits. Other expedi- 
tions, said their enemies, sent home many 
pearls; this one sends none. Their faithful 
friends claimed that that fact showed the dis- 
interestedness of the missionaries. Rather, an- 
swered the disaffected, it proves that they con- 
ceal the treasures which they gather ; and, be- 
sides, that they are pretty busy at something 
else than the state's business, one might guess, 
seeing that no creek or bay or harbor has yet 
been found by them for the great galleon to 
seek shelter in. 

Meanwhile, no help towards the new con- i7oo. 
quest came from the civil government. Once 



48 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, the viceroy and general assembly tendered 
an appropriation so contemptibly small that 

1700. Father Ugarte declined to accept it. Philip 
v., on his accession to the throne of Spain, 
ordered that six thousand dollars a year be 
paid towards the object. In 1701, Mary of 
Savoy expressed her highest admiration of the 
enterprise. She deemed it already a grand 
success, for she had learned that for fifty 
leagues about the Indians were brought to a 
settled obedience, that four towns had been 
founded, that they counted six hundred con- 
verts and two thousand adult catechumens. 
But, since the treasury was already exhausted 
by an expensive effort to conquer Texas, and 
save Pensacola from falling- into the hands 
of other nations, neither the king's order nor 
Mary's good wishes brought a dollar to the 
famishing conquerors of Lower California. 

Father Ugarte, despairing at last of state 
aid, gathered what contributions he could in 
Mexico, and proceeded in person to the field. 
This was about the close of the year 1700. 
He took his station at St. Xavier, in the inte- 
rior, and henceforth the professor of philos- 
ophy dedicated all his energies to the work 
of. teaching and civilizing half-naked savages. 
There was a little good land about his mission, 
and he determined to make the most of it. 
The first thing in the morning, the Indians, 



MEEEY SAVAGES. 49 

young and old, were gathered into churcli for chap. 
mass. Tlien came breakfast of pozoli, and ^__, 
then work. i70G. 

It was easy working with sucli a master, for 
lie claimed the hardest task for himself. He 
was first in the trench with his spade ; at fell- 
ing trees, no one handled the axe so well ; at 
splitting rocks, he was the handiest with the 
crow. His good-nature infected his company, 
and when he himself began to tire, he ordered 
all hands to rest. He was patient as the day 
was long, but they must not trifle with him out 
of season. Once, at prayers, he was annoyed at 
seeing his whole congregation full of merriment, 
evidently at his expense. He kept on with his 
duties as if he saw nothins; amiss, until he was 
sure that the cause of the giggling was a stout, 
full-grown Indian, who was a sort of bully 
among them. The meek but muscular mission- 
ary said nothing, but suddenly catching the 
stout savage by the hair of the liead, swung 
him to and fro, till the others, thinking their 
turn might come next, ran frightened out of the 
church. But when he learned that they had 
laughed because of his mispronunciation, and 
the comical misuse of words that the wags of 
his class led him into, he possessed his soul in 
patience, and chose more carefully his philo- 
logical advisers. The savages could not but be 
charmed with his shrewd and kindly ways. 



50 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP. And he made not only the little patch of rich 
^___^ soil about the mission, bnt the rough, craggy 
1707. desert around it too, wave with golden grain 
and corn, and the vines of his planting yielded 
a small stock of generous wine. In 1707, while 
New Spain was suffering with drought, he was 
eating bread of his own raising. The stock 
was not enough to last the year, but sufficient 
to lessen essentially the charges for supplies 
from abroad. The horses and sheep, brought 
over from the opposite coast, increased rapidly. 
He made distaffs, spinning-wheels, ond looms, 
and imported a weaver to teach his Indians the 
mysteries of that art. "Who," he gayly Vv^'ote, 
" who would have dreamed of any such thing !" 
Yet lono; before Uo^arte had eaten bread of 
his own makino;, all the missions would have 
been blotted out but for the untiring zeal of 
Kino, who, from his Sonora settlements, was 
sending over continually grain, cattle, furni- 
ture — every thing that he could muster to sup- 
ply their wants. California was his field, and 
he only tarried in Sonora that, with its fertility, 
he might relieve the barrenness of the land 
where his affections lay. 

But frequently it occurred that all the sur- 
plus proceeds of a harvest, shipped for the Cali- 
fornia missions, were lost or damaged by the 
dangerous transit of the gulf Kino early con- 
cluded that the salvation of the California mis- 



NEW JriSSION ENTEEPEISES. 51 

sions, wliicli could not become self-supporting in chap. 
many years, hinged on this question : whether ^ 
or not California was joined to the main land 1707. 
He believed firmly that it was, and in this faith 
he constantly pushed up his missions to the 
northward. He gathered the Indians into vil- 
lages, travelled among them, won their confi- 
dence, and slowly extended his peaceful con- 
quests in that direction where he thought — 
perhaps in the latitude of Monterey, perhaps of 
Mendocino — he would be able to turn south 
again, and carry on the chain of Christian settle- 
ments, till the last link were established with 
Loreto and its circle. He met few difficulties 
in the Indians themselves^ but an abundance 
from his commercial countrymen. The Apaches, 
at this day such a terror to travellers, gave him 
no trouble ; but avaricious Spaniards were the 
plague of his life. These fellows studied to 
keep the Pimos rebels and enemies, that they 
might have an excuse for making slaves of 
them. At his earnest solicitation, the Audience 
of Guadalaxara agreed that none of his converts 
should be obliged to work in the mines or on 
the public lands for five years after conversion. 
Charles V. extended the term of exemption to 
twenty years. And yet Kino w^as sadly morti- 
fied to see his baptized converts dragged off 
without mercy to the mines, in spite of the agree- 
ment — in violation of the kiug's explicit order. 




52 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

But Fatlier Kiuo knew that in Mexico, and 
among tliose who were regarded as authorities, 

1700. there were many who denied the premises of 
his reasoning, and were sceptical as to the con- 
nection of California with the main land, upon 
which he presumed. More to satisfy their 
doubts than any of his own, in the year 1700 
he made up a party of friendly Indians, and 
proceeded to the junction of the Gila and the 
Colorado, crossed the Gila, where fifteen hun- 
dred natives came out in a body to see him, and 
ascended a mountain, whence he saw notliing 
but land to the westward. The natives, too, 
assured him that the first " l)ig water " in a 
westerly direction was the South Sea. 

1701. The next year he repeated the journey, ac- 
companied by Salva Tierra, and both were 

1702. satisfied on the point. The year following, 
Kiuo once more took the excursion, and made 
his own assurance trebly sure that California 
was not an island, as the maps of that day had 
it, under the name of Islas Carolinas. But 
the course of our story must wait no longer 
on the movements of Father Kino, the life 
as they were of the land to whose spiritual 
subjugation he was entirely devoted. He 
abated no jot of his first zeal, remitted no eftbrt 
that could forward his cause, until, in 1710, he 
died. 

1704. The seventh year (1704) of the California 



A PEKILOUS YEAR. 53 

missions was near to Leiog their last. The sup- chap. 
plies were spoiled on the way. The garrison 
grew discontented. Matters came to such a ito4. 
strait that Salva Tierra called the fathers to- 
gether, and plainly put the question whether 
they should surrender to the impending famine 
and go home. Not that he for a moment med- 
itated joining himself in any retreat, but it 
seemed like submitting to a company of, men 
whether or not they would consent to stay and 
starve. The fathers, with one voice, agreed to 
take the risks and stay. Nor upon consulta- 
tion would one of the camp consent to go, un- 
less the fathers would. So TJgarte gathered a 
force of soldiers and Indians for a raid into the 
woods ; and on the fruits of the forest and the 
roots that they dug, they managed to subsist 
until supplies ai'rived. 

This peril passed, Salva Tierra went over to 
Mexico on business of the mission. There he 
heard bad news — that he was promoted to be 
provinciaL He sent on at once, asking permis- 
sion to resign his new post, but meanwhile 
exerted all the increased influence that the 
position gave him to forward the California 
interest. He waited on the viceroy, pleaded 
the king's warrants, urged the arguments two 
centuries old, but won only promises. He pre- 
pared a bold and earnest memorial to the 
Assembly, just about to meet, in which he set 



54 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, forth the policy of supporting what was so well 
begun, and represented the impossibility of con- 

1711. tinuing the settlements unless a more generous 
liberality were extended them. For seven and 
a half years they had been allowed three ves- 
sels ; now two of them were lost, and one could 
not answer the purpose. He contrasted the 
luckless, fruitless, wretchedly misconducted ex- 
pedition of Otondo, who had the royal treas- 
ury at command, with the economy and success 
of this. He pictured the barrenness of the 
country. From the time of Cortez the peopling 
of it was tried in vain ; but, the holy Virgin 
of Loreto aiding, the land was subdued at 
last and settled. He showed how certainly all 
would be lost if the fathers had not the power 
to appoint and displace the commander of the 
military. He dwelt upon the danger of insur- 
rection if, under any pretence, the Indians were 
compelled to fish for pearls, and he asked that 
twenty-five soldiers and a captain be put at 
the service of the missionaries. The cost of the 
enterprise to that day was one million two hun- 
dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, exclu- 
sive of the "foundation" of six missions, which 
amounted to sixty-eight thousand dollars more. 
Of these sums the treasury had paid only eigh- 
teen thousand dollars. As to the king's sug- 
gestion to establish a garrison on the western 
coast, for the relief of the Philippine ships, he 



SALVA TIEREA S PLEA. 55 

proposed that, without the expense of a new ohap 
garrison, a subsidy of thirteen thousand dollars 
be paid to the fathers, which would enable 1711. 
them to push the settlements across to the west- 
ern coast. As to the condition of the country, 
he assured them that the sovereign was now 
possessed of fifty leagues in circuit, where all 
was so profoundly peaceful that the fathers tra- 
versed it alone without a guard. Three routes 
to the Pacific had been discovered, and a dis- 
tance of two days' journey along the ocean 
coast had been surveyed. 

But the viceroy, who listened with politeness, 
meant no relief. His royal master needed all 
that could be spared from the treasury, for the 
greater part of Europe was leagued to deprive 
him of his crown. Perhaps the viceroy was 
influenced by the common scandal of the time 
as to the insatiable avarice and wealth of 
the Jesuits ; more probably he thought he 
made a better case for himself with the king, 
by remitting money to Spain, than he could hj 
carrying into effect his pious orders, which did 
not need to be enforced to gain for majesty an 
abundance of credit. But, whatever his motive, 
California got no favors from him. 

The churlish viceroy died in 1711, and the 
Duke de Liuacres succeeded him. The duke 
had an hereditary affection for the Jesuits, and 
would have strained a point to forward their 



56 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, enterprise ; but in liis official capacity lie could 
do nothing, for all tlie king's schedules had 

1711. been so carefully secreted by his predecessor 
that they could not be found. However, he 
testified the sincerity of his professions by giv- 
ing by will one-third of his estates to the Cali- 
fornia missions, and then, as the climax of his 
excellent behavior, died in I7l7, and gave them 
an early enjoyment of his bequests. 

The missionaries, meanwhile, kept themselves 
busy ; now Father Piccolo was directing all 
their energies to secure the supplies for their 
subsistence ; now Father Ugarte was laborious- 
ly surveying a new route to the ocean ; now all 
were en2:ao;ed in inducini»: the Indians at a dis- 

Co o 

tance to exchano-e their wild life for the habits 
of the settlements, and now founding new mis- 
sions. 

Salva Tierra bad at last obtained his dis- 
charge from the office of provincial, and re- 
turned to share the perils of his brethren. 
Scarcity of food was the dark shadow that was 
always approaching, or just behind them, but 
1717. seldom entirely out of sight. At one time the 
small-pox made terrible ravages among the 
natives. The sorcerers whispered that the 
fathers poisoned the children with the baptis- 
mal water, and the adults with extreme unc- 
tion, and thence came seditions and revolts. 
Then the vessels were lost. Then again there 



A statesman's view. 57 

would be a burst of sunsliiue ; supplies would chap. 
arrive, and peace follow in the wake of plenty ; 
and so, v/ith alternations of good and bad for- 1717. 
tune, things w^ent on until 1717. 

In the autumn of that year all the peninsu- 
la was visited by a hurricane, which did great 
damage to the missions. Father Ugarte's house 
and church were levelled to the ground. A 
Spanish boy at Loreto was reported as taken up 
in a whirlwind and never seen more ! If (says 
the chronicler) in former ages such hurricanes 
were frequent in California, it is not surprising 
that all its mould was swept away, leaving its 
rocks bare, and its plains and valleys covered 
with heaps of stones. 

But a more remarkable event than the hur- 
ricane notched this year as noticeable. A new 
viceroy had arrived at Mexico, charged by the 
minister Alberoni — afterwards cardinal — to 
lend every encouragement to the Sonora and 
California missions ; to establish garrisons on 
the South Sea coast at all practicable j)oints, 
and, if possible, to induce the formation of set- 
tlements up the Coloi'ado and Gila Hivers. Al- 
beroni believed that the settlement of Califor- 
nia would tend to develoj) immensely the 
trade with the Philippines, and that in return 
that trade, after a nucleus on the coast were 
once formed, would build up California. His 
instructions on these points wonderfully fore- 



58 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, sliadow the destiny of the coast that we are 
^' seeing fulfilled to-day, though of course the 

1717. glory and wealth of Spain were the objects to 
1)6 attained by all the means that he suggested. 
The viceroy desired to second with spirit all 
that was commanded him, and, that he might 
do so intelligently, sent for Salva Tierra to visit 
Mexico. 

The noble old pioneer, though afflicted with 
a very painful disorder, and stooping with the 
weight of years, immediately started. He 
])aused from sheer necessity at Guadalaxara, 
and was never able to renew his journey. Two 
months he suffered there the sharpest agony ; 
then, perfectly contented, resigned his breath. 
The whole city assisted at his burial, and[ every 
friend of California moui'iied her loss in his 
death. 

Jayme Bravo, who attended the good father 
through his illness, pushed on to Mexico, and 
answered, a good deal better than was feared, 
the purposes for which Salva Tierra had been 
summoned. The viceroy's council and the 
Assembly, with the greatest generosity, granted, 
so far as resolutions could do it, all that was 
asked, but forgot the necessary appropriations ; 
and so the treasurer, who was a very strict 
economist where his own interests were out of 
question, declined to pass over any funds. 
Then Alberoni, being made cardinal, left Spain 



WASTED LABORS. 59 

for a different order of business, and thus his chap. 
grand scheme for California collapsed. v— v-^ 

In 1722 clouds of locusts invaded Lower 1722. 
California, and consumed every green thing. 
The Indians, being short of food, turned the in- 
vaders to account for that purpose, and from 
this cause, as they alleged, came the general 
epidemic, of which great numbers of them died. 
The next year an epidemic dysentery raged 
with great havoc. 

But no opportunity for making explorations 
was ever omitted. The Pacific coast had been 
surveyed, from St. Lucas to the latitude of Cer- 
ros Island, and three tolerable harbors, with 
wood and water convenient, had been discov- 
ered. Maps, charts, and minute draughts of 
the result of every tour were forwarded to 
Spain, but it is doubtful if royal eyes ever 
vouchsafed a glance at them. Valuable papers 
of this sort were either treated carelessly and 
soon lost, or, if deposited in the state archives, 
it was so difficult to gain access to them, that 
their information failed to enter into general 
circulation. So it happened, that during this 
century there were many important discoveries 
and re-discoveries ; and the country was still, at 
the end, almost the Unknown Land that it was 
at the beginning. 

As to the insular or peninsular character of 
California, there was scarcely less diversity of 



60 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

sentiment than if Fatlier Kino Lad not three 
several times during his life established the 
1722. poiiit. Even Father Ugarte thought there 
might possibly be some channel between Loreto 
and the mouth of the Colorado, through which 
the waters of the Gulf issued into the ocean. 
The doubt at last bred in him the determina- 
tion to know the truth. But he had no vessel 
to make a survey with, no money to purchase 
one, and no timber at hand to build one. Being 
in earnest, howevei', he procured a gang of ship- 
masters, climbed with them over the mountains, 
found in a secluded spot trees that they pro- 
nounced fit for the purpose, cleared a road into 
the slouo;h, cut and drao-ored the timber to the 
lauding, and constructed a vessel, of no great 
dimensions indeed, but a stancher craft than 
they were accustomed to see in those parts; 
and though it about exhausted their provisions 
and money, it cost less than to have bought 
her equal in Mexico. This pioneer Cali- 
fornia coaster was named The Triumjyh of the 
Cross. 

Taking an open boat along as a tender, 
Father Ugarte and a company of twenty men 
set sail in the Triumpli, on an expedition from 
which they did not return until they had thor- 
oughl}^ explored both sides of the Gulf to the 
mouth of the Colorado. It proved a voyage 
full of perils and hair-breadth escapes. As 



FATHER UGAKTe's DEATH. 61 

tliey neared the nj)per end of the Gulf, the tide chap. 
rolled impetuously at tlie flood over an immense >_^J_, 
extent of flat country, and currents of great 1722. 
strength swept around the rocks. The water 
was poisonous to their flesh. One day it was 
as dark at noon as it usually is at midnight ! 
They had thunder and rain, and waves of fright- 
ful height. Once they were terrified by the 
close approach of a water-spout. It was a great 
comfort to the men, as the fiercest of the gales 
that they encountered was raging, to see St. 
Elmo's fire hoverino- aroand the cross at 
the mast-head. Out of all their troubles they 
were safely delivered, and they returned well 
satisfied that they had seen the end of the Gulf, 
and that there was no way for its waters to 
reach the ocean except southward. As to the 
people on the shores, they noticed that those 
on the east were cruel and malignant, but on 
the west they were gentle, friendly, and just. 
Father Ugarte made no more expeditions, built 
no more vessels. In 1730, when seventy years 1730. 
old, after thirty years of missionary life and 
service, he quietly died. 

If he had lived four years longer, he would 
have thought the sun of a brighter day wa 
rising on his rugged land. For, in 1734, the 1734. 
Philippine galleon for the first time visited it, 
turning in to St. Lucas with only water enough 
on board to last two days longer, and her crew 



02 THE HISTORY OF CALITOENIA. 

CHAP, down with scurvy. Tlie missions furnisLed 
her with water, fresh fruit, and vegetables, and 
1734. most of the crew w^ere recovered before she re- 
sumed her hizy course toward Acapulco. 

Here were demonstrated at last the benefits 
of the mission to East Indian commerce. When 
the story should reach Mexico, it must com- 
mend the policy so long pursued without en- 
couragement, and give a fresh impetus to the 
work of settling the country. 

But it worked precisely an opposite result. 
The Philippine trade itself was in Jesuit hands. 
The owners of the cargoes of the galleon were 
the monks of Manila. They had their enemies 
in Mexico, and these found now a new reason 
for frowninsT on the missions. Their influence 
was sufficient with the Government to prevent 
the dispatch of garrisons to protect the later 
settlements. 

The Indians, no longer restrained by moral 
means, since the fathers had no physical force 
to make it respectable, rose in rebellion, de- 
stroyed the four missions between La Paz and 
St. Lucas, and gave crowns of martyrdom to 
Fathers Carranco and Taraaral. The mission- 
aries returned to Loreto, which was the capital 
of the province, and their settlements for a 
while ran to waste. The next year's galleon, 
putting in to St. Lucas, found all desolate that 
was shortly before so flourishing, and, indeed, 



A EEBELLION. 63 

thirteen of her men, who went on shore with- chap. 
out suspicion, were murdered by the insur- _^^_^ 
gents. 1736. 

The Yaquis came over from the continent 
to aid the missionaries, and the Governor of Si- 
naloa tendered his help. It was not, however, 
until after he had spent two years in learning 
that coercion was the only method of dealing 
with insurgent Indians, that he took the fa- 
thers' advice, treated the rebels as enemies, 
whipped them soundly in battle, and restored 
peace. 

Philip V. assumed the cost of repressing 
this outbreak for the royal treasury, and he 
made some spasmodic efforts to complete the 
reduction of California. Ferdinand VI., with 
all his power, seconded his father's efforts. He 
essayed, but without success, to settle the pen- 
insula by means of emigration from Mexico. 
He ordered that the soldiery be entirely subor- 
dinate to the clergy. He suggested to the 
Jesuits the propriety of doubling the number 
of their missionaries, and, in accordance with 
Father Kino's plan, sweeping the circle of 
their establishments from Pimeria to California. 
But the provincial replied, that the utter bar- 
renness of the region around the head of the 
Gulf, and the experience of fifty years, made it 
quite useless to repeat that attempt. Still, 
Father Consag, in 1746, explored anew the 



64 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP. Colorado, with a view to the practicability of 
establishing an overland route from California 
174G. to Sonora. 

Meanwhile, the order remitted no effort to 
maintain the missions that were established, 
and found new ones. In 1745 they numbered 
sixteen. Their sio-nal fires on the mountains 
guided the annual galleon into St. Lucas Bay, 
and the products of their thin soil furnished the 
fresh supplies that her scurvy-stricken crew re- 
1758. quired. In 1758 the Indians, for a tract three 
hundred leagues northward from St. Lucas, 
were tamed and converted — that is, they did no 
harm to the whites, worked a little under the 
orders of the fathers, and were supported in 
part or entirely by them. 

Life at the missions passed off very quietly, 
in about this way : — 

Every morning the sexton, or catechist, as- 
sembled the Indians in the church, where the 
Te Deum was sung, mass said, and catechism 
rehearsed. Then came a breakfast, for all who 
were punctual at church, of corn, boiled, bruised, 
macerated in water, and warmed again — they 
called the dish atole. Then all went to the 
work of the day, or to the woods. At noon, 
they who fed at the public table had pozoli — 
simple boiled corn — with meat, and " vegetables 
in theu' season." At night, there were devo- 
tions again in the church ; and, after that, more 



LIFE AT THE MISSIONS. 65 

atole. Every Sunday they walked in proces- chap. 
sion around the village, and then to cliurcli, .__^_ 
where, besides prayers, catechism, and singing, 1758. 
they lieard simple sermons. 

The father was head laborer, head cook, 
school-master, physician, and priest. In every 
new mission he was attended by a soldier, who 
was vicegerent in the father's absence ; for 
small faults he whipped, for larger ones he im- 
prisoned the offender, or put him in the stocks. 
Whipping, from the way it came into vogue, 
was always very popular. The captain of the 
garrison at Loreto once detected a thief, and 
ordered for him a very severe punishment. Just 
as sentence was al>out to be executed, Salva 
Tierra interfered ; the captain consented to 
change the punishment to flogging, and tlie na- 
tives were filled with admiration that so inno- 
cent and superficial a substitute could satisfy 
justice. 

The captain of the garrison was also captain 
of the coast ; but in all things he was subordi- 
nate to the fathers, which was a grievous 
offence to the sword. The soldiers and sailors 
complained about being denied the privilege of 
diving for pearls, of which every fifth one found 
was the Idng's perquisite ; but diving, the mis- 
sionary firmly prohibited. Nothing so much 
prejudiced the natives as to find the foreigners 
running off with this source of their wealth ; — 



66 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, uothlnoj would sooner entail scandal on tlie mis- 
^_^_ sions. He encouraged diving by the natives, 
1758. on their own account ; but neither sailors nor 
soldiers must engage in it. 

Everywhere, the children were the first care. 
Some from all the missions came up to Loreto, 
where they learned reading, writing, singing, 
and Spanish ; and were promoted, as they 
earned the honor, to be church-wardens or 
catechists at home. The priests furnished their 
parishioners with coarse clothes and blankets. 
Those who could work were instructed to do 
so, and the product of their labor was their 
own, except only the wine, which the f^ither 
saved for his personal and medicinal uses. But, 
as the very best of them would waste all they 
gathered, if left in their hands, the father 
saved it for them in a common store, distribu- 
ting it as their necessities demanded, or occa- 
sionally helping out some other mission not 
quite so able. As it was found impossible 
either to subsist the entire population who 
would attend service, as was first intended, or 
to find profitable work for them, the policy 
adopted was to feed the chief, the aged, the 
sick, and the children from six to twelve years 
old, and to give a certain allowance to all the 
rest, provided once a week they came to receive 
instruction. This was done to induce them to 
keep together in villages, rather than to stray 



THE JESUITS IN" LOWER CUJEOEIflA. 67 

about tlie mountains, driftino; hither and thither chap. 
without any home. Seeing that not the church _^_ 
only, but all the parishioners were to be sup- 1758. 
ported, these missions were very costly experi- 
ments to their faithful patrons. When the 
contributions for their support amounted to 
$10jOOO, the sum was invested at home as a 
"foundation," and the five per cent, interest 
was transmitted to the missionary as his salary. 
Afterwards, instead of investing the principal, 
it was devoted to the purchase of a farm, 
which was manao-ed for the missions' account. 
Really, since 1735, there had been no great dif- 
ficulty as to the finances. The Jesuits had 
received some large donations, which were ad- 
ministered shrewdly — they purchased some pro- 
ductive real estate, and afterwards added to it 
mines, factories, and flocks. This property was 
held sacred to the California enterprise, and 
was called the " Pious Fund." 

Whatev^er they may have to answer for on i767. 
other parts of the continent, the Jesuits certainly 
earned a good name in Lower California. True, 
none but Jesuits were the historians of their 
career on the barren peninsula, but their version 
is confirmed by Indian tradition, and by all the 
mute witnesses that remain after the workman 
is gone, and testify of his faithfulness or his 
treason to his trust. 

But King Charles of Spain saw Jesuitism 



68 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, steeping in the politics and controlling the 
^_^__, interests of the realm ; and, to sa-^e his throne, 
1767. he expelled the order from his domain. The 
decree was instantly enforced in the provinces 
of Mexico ; and the Jesuit establishments in 
California, and their pious fund, were turned 
over, in 1707, to the Franciscan monks of the 
College of San Fernando, at Mexico. 

Father Junipero Sen-a was selected as the 
president of the missions under the new order. 
He set out at once for his field, and on the 1st 
of April of the next year, at Loreto, took 
possession. In the manuscript records of the 
Loreto church stands the entry that Serra made 
on the next day : " We are in the mission and 
royal presidio of Loreto, capital of this penin- 
sula of California, sixteen religious priests, 
preachers and apostolic missionaries ; ''' ^' * 
the fathers of the Company of Jesus having 
heen expelled, for reasons known to his Ma- 
jesty." 

If thus the Franciscans came in without a 
compliment to their predecessors, the Jesuits 
went out saying " the grapes were sour," and 
wasting no adulations on the land tliey were 
quitting. Father Begert, a German, who had 
spent seventeen years in the land, relieved his 
mind of a load when he got hack to Europe, 
by publishing at Manheim, in 1773, some "His- 
torical Sketches of the American Peninsula of 



FRANCISCANS UNDERTAKE THE MISSIONS. 69 

California," He pronounced it a miserable chap. 
land, not worth tlie trouble of describing — a v_.^__ 
land of chaparral, thorn-bushes, bare rocks, and 1769. 
sand-hills, with a brutish people, whose Christi- 
anity was all on the surface, but whose habits 
of laziness, lying, and stealing were ingrained. 
They had no words to express the most homely 
virtues, yet had so small a share of such virtues 
that the lack was not annoying to them. Be- 
gert's book must have made the bones of Kino 
and Salva Tierra rattle with indignation in their 
graves, that a Jesuit should come to speak in 
such a strain of the poor land and the poorer 
people whom they offered themselves to save! 

The Franciscans girded themselves to their 
work with enthusiasm, but a rival order, the 
Dominicans, began to clamor for a share of the 
field, and at last obtained a royal edict requir- 
ing one or two of the missions to be surrendered 
to them. The Franciscan warden explained 
how indivisible the interests of the missions 
were, and proposed, instead, to cede the whole 
to them; for they had, by this time, another 
project at heart. So the Dominicans took pos- 
session of the Lower California missions, and 
the Franciscans retired altogether into the un- 
known land to the northward — our own Upper 
California. 

This concludes our dealings with Lower 
California. The impatient reader may deem 



70 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA, 

CHAP, all wiitten on this subject impertinent to a 
^'_ histoiy of California. But really it is an es- 

1757. sential part of the story. The bald Pacific 
coast of California presented a front that Span- 
ish enterprise could not penetrate. The Jesu- 
its were then invoked to flank it with their 
mission strategy — to approach it gradually, 
by civ^ilizing the rude tribes of the penin- 
sula, by ascending the Colorado, by subdu- 
ing the deserts, and planting settlements at 
convenient distances from Gape St. Lucas north- 
ward, until the goodly land described by Vis- 
caino were reached and subjugated. Father 
Venegas's History of CaUfo7'7iia, published at 
Madrid, 1757, was the record of this grand 
flanking enterprise. His California was not the 
peninsula alone, but all the unknown land 
north of it, though repeated failures led the 
Jesuits at last to relinquish their long-cherished 
hopes of going much above the mouth of the 
Colorado, since every new advance northward 
separated them farther from their base of sup- 
plies. 

Accompanying Venegas's History, published 
at Madrid, 1757, was a curious map, which 
shows at a glance what the pioneers thought 
our western world was like. The outlines of 
Lower California are laid down with general 
accuracy. The Colorado, a little above the 
mouth of the Gila, stops short. But the most 




A MAP OF CALTFOENIA. 71 

curious feature is a grand sea — an ocean situ- 
ated within the continent of North America- 
stretching from Mexico, in the hititude of Cape 1757. 
St. Sebastian, up to the latitude of the southern 
point of Greenland, and twenty-five degrees in 
width. Two straits connect this mediterranean 
sea with the Pacific, in latitudes forty-three and 
forty-six. From the course of the Colorado it 
is evident they thought future discoveries 
would lead it up to this great* sea, which on 
the northeast, by a river and through two lakes, 
connects with Hudson's Bay. Midway between 
Cape Mendocino and Monterey is the Cape of 
Pines, and behind it, on the north, a deep inden- 
tation in the coast — the only thing that looks 
like San Francisco. Hudson Kiver makes a 
clean breach across to the St. Lawrence, and 
New England is an island. 



72 THE HISTORY OF CALITOIINIA. 



CHAPTER VI 

OCCUPATION OF UPPER CALIFORNIA BY THE 
FRANCISCANS. 

Before tlie Franciscans had consented to 
give up Lower California, Jose de Galvez, tlie 
1768. new visitor-general, and afterwards minister- 
general for all tlie Indies, had arrived, bearing 
an order from the King of Spain to rediscover 
by sea, and make a settlement at San Diego. 
Galvez, w"ho seems to have been a man of 
marked ability and enterprise, at once under- 
took the execution of the king's design, and he 
found in Father Junipero Serra a faithful and 
enthusiastic co-operator. Studying the spirit 
rather than the letter of his instructions, Gal- 
vez with all haste prepared two expeditions, 
one to go by land, the other by water ; and, to 
make success more sure, he divided each of 
these in two, to start sepai'ately, but all to 
meet at San Diego. His fleet consisted of two 
vessels, the San Oarlos, of not more than two 
hundred tons, and the San Antonio^ both of 
which were brought over from San Bias for the 
purpose. 



GALVEZ AND JUNIPERO SEREA. 73 

The San Carlos was tlie flag-ship. She chap. 
sailed from La Paz January 9th, 1769, Father ,_^_ 
Junipero having first blessed the flags, and i769. 
Galvez deliverino; a cheering: address to the 
embarking adventurers, who numbered in all 
sixty-two persons. Her commander was Don 
Vicente Villa. Amono; those on board were 
Friar Fernando Parron, father missionary; 
Lieutenant Pedro Fages and twenty-five sol- 
diers, a baker, tw^o blacksmiths, a cook, and 
two tortilla-makers. Her manifest, which is 
still to be found in the State archives of Cali- 
fornia, includes Indian corn and flour, ci-ackers, 
home-made sugar, peas, beans, rice, hams, fish, 
chocolate (but no cofifee or tea), a little brandy 
and wine, plenty of dried meat, one thousand 
dollars in small coin, candles for the churches, 
fish-oil and lamp-wicks for light, and supplies 
of other sorts sufficient to afford very comfort- 
able living, for both cabin and forecastle, du- 
ring a long voyage or a tedious delay on a 
desolate shore. Galvez accompanied the San 
Carlos in a little vessel as far as Cape St. Lucas, 
and saw her fairly to sea, with the wind in the 
right quarter, before he turned back. 

The next off was the San Antonio^ which 
started from Cape St. Lucas on the 15th of 
February, commended, as her consort had been, 
to the patronage of St. Joseph. Her com- 
mander was Juan Perez, who was born on the 



74 THE IIISTOEY OF CxYLIFOENIA. 

CHAP. Island of Majorca, and had ali'eady won fame as 

"a pilot in the Philippine trade. Among her 

1769. passengers were two priests. The San Antonio 
had been thoroughly overhauled at St. Lucas, 
Galvez himself seeing that not a l)arnacle was 
left on her, and that her keel was as sound as on 
the day it was laid. She carried ornaments for 
the church ; all sorts of utensils for tent, house, 
or field; flower, vegetable, and fruit seeds for 
the garden and orchard, and grain for the 
valleys. Indeed, all that was thought necessary 
for the foundation of at least three missions 
was dispatched in one or the other of these 
vessels, or overland. 

The land expedition was placed in command 
of Gaspar de PortaM, who, at the time, was 
Governor of Lower California, and a captain 
of dragoons. The next officer in rank was Don 
Fernando Rivera y Moncada, who was captain of 
a company of foot-soldiers. Rivera had made the 
tour of the northern missions in the preceding fall, 
and collected men, provisions, horses, mules, and 
two hundred head of cattle, with which to stock 
the unknown country they were to settle. On 
the 24th of March he left the frontier mission 
for the northern wilderness. In his company 
were Father Juan Crespi, a pilot who under- 
took to keep an itinerary, twenty-five foot-soldiers 
who wore leathern bucklers, three muleteers. 



WHITE MEN ENTER CALIFOENIA TO LIVE. 75 

and an unnumbered host of Christian Indians, 



-'> 



from the peninsular missions. 

Last of all started Governor PortaM's com- i769. 
pany, in May, — Father Junipero, though in 
wretched health for a journey into the desert, 
being punctually at the rendezvous. 

These four detachments reached San Diego, 
but not precisely in the order of their starting. 
The first vessel in was the San Antonio. The 
San Carlos arrived twenty days behind her, 
having lost, by scurvy, all of her crew but one 
sailor and the cook, and several of the soldiers. 
Rivera's company was in by the 14th of May, 
and Portald's, after a j)leasant jaunt of forty-six 
days, at a time of year when the landscape is 
most charming and the weather most delicious, 
came in sight on the 1st of July. There was a Julyi. 
great time in San Diego on that day, when all 
who were alive of the two hundred and fifty 
that made up the total of the four expeditions 
met again. The vessels fired salutes, the sol- 
diers discharged round after round for joy. The 
1st of July, 1769, is marked in the almanacs as 
the birthday of both Wellington and Napoleon, 
Vjut it is memorable in our history, as Randolph, 
in his admirable Outline of the History of Cali- 
fornia., well remarks, for a greater event than 
either — it was the first day that white men 
entered Upper California with the purpose to 
live and die there. 



76 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOK^STIA. 

Just as soon as tlie mutual congratulations 
were ended, the work of founding a mission 
commenced. For this the process was to select 
a suitable spot, and take formal possession of 
it in the name of Spain. A tent was erected, 
or an arbor, or booth, or rude log-house con- 
structed for a temporary church, and into it the 
sacred ornaments were carried. A cross was 
planted before its entrance, a patron saint was 
named, a clergyman for the post designated. 
Then all the premises were sprinkled mth holy 
water, the candles were lighted, mass was said 
and sung (the soldiers with their fire-arms doing 
duty for the organ, and the smoke of exploding 
gunpowder answering for incense), and a ser- 
mon was preached. The next task was to draw 
in the Indians. Presents of cloth and food 
served to catch the adults, and bits of domestic 
sugar captivated the children. The natives 
were to be convinced that the strang-ers came as 
friends, to protect them from their enemies and to 
do them good. As their confidence was gained, 
they were to be allured away from their idle 
wandering habits, persuaded to settle in villages 
near the mission, instructed in farmino; and the 
simple arts, taught the elements of the Catholic 
faith, and, as soon as they consented and seemed 
disposed to their new life, to be baptized and 
reckoned converts. Father Junipero consid- 



GOVERNOR PORTALA AT SAN FRANCISCO. i i 

ered himself fairly started in this work in a chap. 



vr. 



fortnicfht after Lis arrival at San Dieajo. 

Leaving liim at his labor of love, than which 1769. 
nothing: could more delio-ht him, the San Anto- 
7U0, with all the sailors who were able, was 
dispatched to San Bias with tidings of what 
had been done, and to fetch up additional sup- 
plies. It is a significant intimation of the perils * 
of the coast, and the state of navigation in those 
times, that, though she made the trip in twenty 
days, she lost nine men on the way. 

Meanwhile, Governor Portald, with soldiers, July u. 
priests, muleteers, and Indians, sixty-five per- 
sons in all, and a pack train of provisions, 
started on the 14th of July to rediscover Mon- 
terey ; for Galvez had charged him to accom- 
plish the never-executed scheme of Philip III., 
so carefully laid down one hundred and sixty- 
three years before. Over six months PortaM 
was gone on this errand. He stopped at Mon- 
terey and set up a cross, but never dreamed it 
was the place he sought. 

Pushing still northward, he came upon a land- 
locked, hill-encompassed bay or lake. East- 
ward the land rose gently to a lofty range of 
hills, beyond which peered the blue peak of 
a far-distant mountain. On the north were 
mountains ; on the west high hills, whose sandy 
slopes descended even to the water's edge. 
They said they recognized this as a spot which 



78 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, had been described, tliougli where, or in what, 
does not appear. That it was a iit place for a 
mission was clear to them all. 

Then the priests remembered that when Gal- 
vez had suggested the three names that were 
to be given to the three missions that they 
were to found, Father Junipero had exclaimed, 
with much grief in his countenance, " But is 
there no mission for Father St. Francis ?" and 
that Galvez had replied, gravely, as if it were 
not a sudden thought, " If St, Francis 'wants 
a mission, let him show us his port, and we will 
put one there." They accepted the token; 
good St. Francis had guided their errant 
steps and brought them to this port, so they 
named it San Francisco. This is the first un- 
questioned account of a visit to San Fran- 
cisco. 

That Sir Francis Drake had spent several 
weeks here, recruiting, has already been shown 
as probable. That Viscaino did not visit it, 
has been shown as equally probable ; and yet 
PortaM's company recognized the place from 
the descriptions, and, curiously enough, before 
they had made out whether the broad sheet of 
water at their feet was a lake or a bay ! 

It seems possible, although this is only a sur- 
mise, that the port may have been visited 
casually by some of the Spanish navigators, 
whose oral descriptions, coinciding with Fran- 



TROUBLES AT SAN DIEGO. '79 

CIS Drake's written accounts, led them, to speak chap. 

VI 

of it as San Francisco — the given name of the ,_^_, 
discoverer being preserved in a form not offen- 1769. 
sive to the prejudices of the Spaniards, and 
calculated to secure a saint's protection; but 
afterwards, as the minutiae of their story faded 
into indistinctness, the glowing accounts still 
surviving were presumed to refer to the har- 
bor of Monterey. So, much of the eulogy that 
was originally spoken of San Francisco harbor 
may have been put to the credit of Monterey ; 
yet, when the former place was revisited, the 
locality was recognized as already described 
under the name it now bears. 

PortaU and his company returned in about 
six months, and thrilling news they heard from 
the little party that had guarded the San Diego 
Mission. The Indians, coveting the cloth which 
the missionaries only doled out to them very 
judiciously, took every opportunity to steal it, 
and even cut out pieces of the sails of the ves- 
sel. Of course the missionaries protected their 
property by force. On the 15th of Augusfc,Aiig, 15. 
the Indians came down in full figliting feather 
and began pillaging. The score of whites and 
their Christian Indian retainers from Lower 
California ilew to arms, whose explosions soon 
commanded peace. In the struggle, one of the 
priests was wounded and a Christian Indian 
killed. The savages saw the strangers were 



80 THE HISTORY OF CALTFOET^IA 

CHAP, too mucli for tliem, and treated tliem from tliat 

^__^ time, for a long wliile, as tlieir kind superiors. 

1V70. But other troubles, and not of Indian origin, 

^ ^^^^^' awaited the San Diego pioneers. Provisions 

fell short, and the sad resolution was taken at 

last, that unless supplies came by the 20th of 

March, they must abandon all and return home. 

Providence kindly remembered the dispirited 

company, for on the very day before the one 

set for the abandonment of all, the S'a7i Anto- 

nio sailed into the harbor with supplies in 

abundance. 

Portald now started again northward by 
land, and this time found Monterey without a 
question, and was satisfied of the fact. 

The San Antonio^ too, ran up the coast, with 
Father Junipero on board, and entered Monte- 
rey harbor eight days after PortaM, on the 31st 
of March. Here again they took possession in 
the name of the king, hung up their bells on 
the trees, rang them out merrily, builded the 
chapel, blessed all, said mass, sang the Veni 
Creator and a Te Deum. 

Portala, in the San Antonio, returned to 
Mexico, taking with him, or sending overland 
under Pivera, the whole of the company, ex- 
cept Father Junipero, five priests, Fages, and 
thirty soldiers. The Indians told those who 
remained, as they sat under those dark Mon- 
terey pines, ghostly stories of how the crosses 



FATHER JTJNIPERO. 81 

sliined that each white man wore on his breast chap. 
the first time they had passed through there, not 
knowing the place ; and of the great cross that 1770. 
was planted by Portald before he knew he was 
at the spot he coveted ; how it would grow at 
night till its point rested among the stars, glis- 
tening the while with a splendor that outshone 
the sun; that when their superstitious dread 
of it wore off, they had approached, planted 
arrows and feathers in the earth around it, and 
hung strings of sardines, as their choicest offer- 
ings, on its arms. 

It was like a gala day when Galvez, at the 
palace of the viceroy, surrounded by distin- 
guished citizens, heard from the mouth of Por- 
tals that Monterey had been discovered, and 
that three missions were established in Upper 
California. The bells of the cathedral and of 
all the churches were rung for joy, and every 
generous pulse in New Spain beat faster for the 
glorious news. 

Father Junipero did not stay long at Mon- 
terey; but, establishing a mission close by on the 
Carmel Kiver, made that his residence, though 
he spent much time in travelling about the 
country, looking up wild Indians, and winning 
them from their savage ways, establishing mis- 
sions, watching his convert^, and baptizing the 
little ones. He was the president of all the 
missions in Upper California until his death. 



82 THE niSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

When a new mission was to be established he 
would take a couple of priests, an escort of sol- 
1784, diers, and a train of mules, packed with the 
necessaries for a journey, and the furniture for 
a church. Then, wanderino; over the moun- 
tains, and peering into all the pleasant valleys, 
until he found a place to suit, he would hang 
the bells on the trees, and himself pull lustily 
the rope, while he shouted, " Hear, hear ! O 
ye Gentiles ! come to the holy church." Then, 
having set up the church tent, blessed and dedi- 
cated it, and appointed a pastor, he would go 
out hunting for parishioners. He lived until 
the year 1784, when, at his own mission on 
the Carmel, he died. 

This venerable Franciscan pioneer was a man 
worthy of the work he undertook. He was 
the son of humble parents, who resided in one 
of the islands of the Mediterranean, and from 
his childhood was educated for the church. He 
showed a wonderful faculty for attaching to 
himself the affections of the natives, and seemed 
by his presence to charm them into a ne'w mode 
of life. It is said that, even before cultivated 
audiences, he would hammer his breast with a 
stone, and hold his flesh in the; flame of a can- 
dle, to show that pain had no terrors in view 
of the love for Christ that filled him. In tra- 
velling, which he usually did on foot, though 
lame from a chronic ulcer on his leg, he wore 



PALOU'S LIFE OF JUNIPEEO. 83 

sandals and never stockino-s. The visitor-o-en- chap. 
eral's proposal for an expedition to the north of _^_, 
his desolate field in Lower California chimed 1784. 
exactly with his desire, and Galvez himself did 
not more urgently strive than he to make the 
undertaking a success. When he came up to 
Portala's rendezvous on the Lower California 
frontier to start for San Diego, he was so lame 
that he could scarcely mount and dismount 
from his mule. Portald gave orders for a litter 
to be made for his conveyance, but the tender- 
heai-ted father would not hear of burdening 
the Indians to carry him. After a prayer that 
this cup might be spared him, he called one of 
the muleteers and asked him what to do for his 
sore foot and leg; but the muleteer modestly 
demurred that he was no sui-geon, and was only 
equal to the task of curing the sore backs of 
beasts. "Then consider me a beast," said the 
father, " and my limb as his back." The 
muleteer, under shelter of this fancy, ventured 
upon the cure, and applied to the ailing limb 
a salve of mashed herbs and tallow. The next 
morning the father was in excellent condition 
and royal spirits. He mounted his mule and 
rode oif, apparently as well as the rest them. 

Junipero's life was written by a devoted 
friend and admirer. Father Francisco Palou, 
the first priest who had charge of the Mission 
Dolores, and his book was doubtless the first 



84 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

book written at San Francisco or in Upper 
California. It was published in Mexico in 
1787. 1787, and with it a map of the country, which 
shows the nine missions and the three presidios, 
and the road between them, all lying near the 
coast, while to the eastward was a blank. 

Before Father Junipero Serra rested from his 
labors he had founded eio;ht missions. Their 
location speaks loudly for the judgment and 
taste of the fathers. They occupy the very 
choicest valleys that snuggle between the coast 
ranges. Generally convenient to the sea, or, if 
not, close by the stream that dries up latest 
during the long droughts, their vicinity is 
green when the other plains are parched. The 
best pasturage, the fattest land, the prettiest 
valleys to look down upon from the mountain 
passes, or up toward from the sea, were chosen 
for mission sites. Perhaps the least desirable 
of all them for purely mission purposes was 
the one at San Francisco. Though the Fran- 
ciscan order owned no richly freighted gal- 
leon annually sweeping down the coast, and 
generally needing a harbor, yet it was so 
charged with the traditional policy of Spain, 
that the Bay of San Francisco pleaded for a 
mission on account of its position. Indeed, 
Father Junipero long had his eye on the sites 
of both San Francisco and Santa Clara, and 
when he went to Mexico to straighten up some 



MISSION DOLORES FOUNDED. 86 

other matters, lie obtained a promise from tlie chap. 
viceroy that tliey should be founded so soon as _^_, 
communication was opened with them from 1773. 
Monterey by land. Captain Juan Bautista 
Anza effected that in 1773, reported the fact to 
the viceroy, and returned with quite a company 
of families in 1776. Meanwhile the San Carlos 
had gone up the coast, and by actually entering 
the Golden Gate, or the Gulf of the Farallones, 
as they called it, in June, 1775, demonstrated 1'775. 
that the land-locked bay — -whose two arms 
stretched, one to the north till it met another 
great ])ay into which St. Francis river, fed by 
five other rivers, flowed, and the other south- 
easterly some fifteen leagues — was open from 
the Pacific for vessels to sail into it at j)leasure. 

On the 17th of Sej^tember, the presidio of 
San Francisco was founded. An expedition was 
organized to explore the interior — a portion to 
go by water up San Pablo Bay, a portion by 
land. The latter strayed into one of the canons 
of the Diablo range and discovered the San 
Joaquin Valley. 

On the 9th of the next month, October, 
1776 — year ever memorable as the date of 1778. 
American Independence — the mission " De los 
Dolores de Nuestro Padre San Francisco de 
Asis" was established. There ^vere several 
Saints Francisco — Francisco of Paula, Francisco 
of Sales, and Francisco of Asisis, the founder 



86 THE IIISTOEr OF CALIFORNIA. 

ijHAP. of the order of Franciscans. This mission was 

. ^__, in honor of the sufferings of him of Asisis, 

1776. and to avoid confusion it soon came to be known 
as the Mission Dolores, while to the presidio 
and the fort clung: the saint's name. The first 
site chosen for the mission was near the " la- 
goon," back of Russian Hill; but the winds 
were so bitter there that soon it was removed 
to the spot on the creek where the crumbling 
old church and some of the houses that sur- 
rounded it still stand. It was the sixth in the 
order of the founding of the Upper California 
missions, and as late as 1802 was the most 
northerly of the eighteen then in existence. 

The order of the establishment of the twenty- 
one missions in Upper California was as fol- 
lows : — 

San Diego, July 16, 1769. 

San Carlos de Monterey (soon removed from 
Monterey to the Carmel River), June 3, 1770. 

San Antonio de Padua (thirteen leagues 
from San Miguel), July 14, 1771. 

San Gabriel (near Los Angeles), September 
8, 1771. 

San Luis Obispo, September 1, 1772. 

San Francisco (Dolores), October 9, 1776. 

San Juan Capistrano (between Los Angeles 
and San Diego), November 1, 1776. 

Santa Clara, January 18, 1777. 



OEDEE OF MISSION ESTABLISHMENTS. 87 

San Buenaventura (southeast of and near ciiai'. 

V[ 

Santa Barbara), March 31, 1782. _^_ 

Santa Barbara, December 4, 1786. nsv. 

La Purisima Concepcion (on the Santa Inez 
Eiver), December 8, 1787. 

Santa Cruz, August 28, 1791. 

Soleclad (on the Salinas Kiver), October 9, 
1791. 

San Jose, June 11, 1797. 

San Juan Bautista (on the San Juan River), 
June 24, 1797. 

San Miguel (on the Salinas River), July 25, 
1797. 

San Fernando Rey (near, and northerly from, 
Los Angeles), September 8, 1797. 

San Luis Key de Francia (thirteen and a 
half leagues from San Diego), June 13, 1798. 

Santa Inez (twelve leagues from Santa Bar- 
bara), September 17, 1804. 

San Rafael (north of San Francisco Bay), 
December 14, 1819. 

San Francisco de Solano (Sonoma), August 
25, 1823. 



88 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 



CHAPTER Vn. 

THE ABORIGINES. 

CHAP. When explorers come u^^on a new land, if 
^^^' they find it heavily timbered, or the intervals 
1776. rank with wild grass, they know that cultiva- 
tion will make it yield richly of grains and 
ft'uit ; but if it bear no trees, or only scraggy 
and stinted ones, and a thin, scant herbage on 
the open country, they condemn it as unfit for 
all farming purposes. Californians have the best 
of reasons for hoping that the aborigines of a 
land do not indicate, ])y the degree of their 
nobleness or degradation, the style of men that 
will be produced under civilized auspices upon 
the same soil ; for, of all wretchedly debased 
and utterly brutal beings, the Indians of Cali- 
fornia were tlie farthest fallen below the averao^e 
Indian type. They were neither brave nor bold, 
generous nor spirited. They seem to have pos- 
sessed none of the noble characteristics that, 
with a slight coloring of romance, make heroes 
of the red men of the Atlantic slopes, and win 
for them our ready sympathy. We hear of no 



THE ABOEIGINES. 89 

orators among them, no bold braves terribly chap. 
resenting and contesting to the last the iisiirj)a- 
tions of the whites. They were "Diggers," i776. 
filthy and cowardly, succumbing without a blow 
to the rule of foreign masters. As redeeming 
them from utter brutality, it is refreshing to see 
occasional glimpses of humor iu them, and a 
disposition to make fun of the missionary when 
his back was turned. But under the father's 
eye they cowered like children on the low 
benches before the old-time pedagogue wielding 
the ferule. Perhaps the mild, motherly sort of 
treatment which priests met them with, dis- 
armed them. Perhaps, if they had been subject 
to the rough handling that the Indian tribes 
generally received from English settlers, they 
might have fired up, and displayed some of the 
violence and savage fury that make us respect 
the Indians of the East and the North. Per- 
haps it was in part because they were treated 
as children, that they grew into simple, childish 
ways. 

They were as contemptible physically as 
intellectually, and evinced as little traces of 
conscience as of a reasoning faculty. To Drake's 
party they showed a disposition to offer sacri- 
fices, thinking the sea-king's jolly tars to be 
veritable gods. Venegas thought the Lower 
Californians to be the most stupid and weak, 
in both body and mind, of all mortals. But the 



90 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

THAP. settlers of Upper California, who had seen l^oth, 
_^__, thought the northern natives far inferior to the 
J 770. southern. Humboldt, from all his readino- con- 
eluded them as low in the scale of humanity as 
the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land. Though 
m many respects one people, the gibberish they 
spoke varied widely in different localities. 
Those about San Diego could not understand a 
word of the language of tho.r^e sixty miles north, 
and every high mountain-range divided dialects. 
I« all their customs, their religi )us notions, 
and their habits, the residents of different val- 
leys differed, though not widely. Father Bos- 
cana, of the San Juan Capistrano Mission, left a 
pretty full account of the Acagchemem nation, 
who constituted his parishioners, and who seem 
to have been about the best of the wdiole, 
though that may be simply because they found 
a more affectionate historian than did any of 
their brethren. Mr. Robinson, the translator 
of Boscana's papei', presumed that the descrip- 
tions might be taken as true, with some slight 
variations, of all the tribes in Upper California. 
We may take, then, the picture of tlio tril)e that 
occupied the sea-coast forty or fifty miles below 
Los Angeles, as representatives of the people 
whom the missionaries found in Upper Cali- 
fornia, and whom Father Junipero learned to 
love as if they were his own flesh. 

They held that the inferior regions were once 



ABOEIGINAL MYTHOLOGY. 91 

on a time married, and their children were the chap. 

. • VII 

sand and soil, rocks, stones, flints for their ar- ^_^_^ 
rows, trees, herbs, grass, and animals. There 1776. 
was a phantom whom they called Chinigchinich, 
an orphan from the beginning, who could see 
in the darkest night as clearly as at noon. This 
powerful being defended the good and chastised 
the bad ; he was always and everywhere present, 
but hailed from the stars as his home. Him 
they regarded as the creator of their race, and 
as their great Captain. The land where they 
lived was the first land made — they seemed to 
believe that there was very little beyond it. 
The sea was at first but a fresh-water stream, 
coursing around their little earth ; but the fishes, 
putting their heads together, agreed and man- 
aged to break a rock, inside of which was gall ; 
emptying this into the river, the waters grew 
bitter, and swelled to an ocean, and the thought- 
ful fishes were rewarded with plenty of room 
and a wholesome pickle to sport in. 

To the great Captain, or god of the long 
name, they accredited all the precepts of morality 
that they taught their children, and to his com- 
mands they traced their customs and mode of 
life. He told them to l)uild a temple ; so in 
every tovfii, close by the chief's house, was the 
oval enclosure, made of the branches of trees 
and mats, surrounded by stakes of wood driven 
into the ground, which constituted the temple. 



92 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. It was a very sacred spot, within or near whicli 
no irreverent act was ever performed ; for tlie 

1770.' god himself was there, in the person of a coyote- 
skin, stuffed with feathers, claws, talons, and 
beaks, which doubtless symbolized the strength, 
swiftness, fierceness, and power of the birds 
and beasts from which they were taken. They 
worshipped him with grotesque dances and 
hideous yells, or sometimes in perfect silence, 
squatting in most awkward attitudes in his 
presence, and retaining one position while the 
ceremony of adoration lasted. His temple was 
the " city of refuge," where the most outrageous 
criminal was safe, and after one visit could go 
free, though the crime might be punished upon 
the descendants of the offender at once or after 
the lapse of generations ! 

The boys were whipped with nettles, and 
laid upon ants' nests, that the stings of the 
insects might make them courageous under the 
infliction of pain. They were branded by 
burning moxas upon the fleshy part of the arm, 
to put them above the consideration of trifling- 
ailments. They were forbidden to warm them- 
selves at a fire, lest they came short of the 
toughness of men ; and, until they were heads 
of families, certain food they must not touch. 
To violate any of these orders, would let loose 
the Evil Spiiit on them, and piiovoke the ire of 
the god. 



CUSTOMS, MANNEES, DRESS. 93 

The girls were trained to work from infancy, chap. 
At ten, to heighten their beauty, their hiists ._^^_ 
and faces were tattooed, the flesh being pricked 1776, 
with the thorn of the cactus until it bled, and 
a soft charcoal rubbed in, in lieu of India ink. 
On arriving at womanhood, they were placed 
on a bed of branches over some heated stones 
that were lain in a hole in the ground, and 
there kept with little or no food for three days, . 
while ancient hags danced around the pile, 
singing songs well calculated to inspire the 
wi'etched, perspiring beauties with a sense of 
the vast responsibilities that pertained to their 
new condition. Betrothed by their parents in 
infancy, they were married with a good deal of 
ceremony, and divorced without any, at their 
own ,or their husbands' will. 

A skin thrown over his shoulders constituted 
the full dress of a gentleman. Mats made of 
squirrel-skins twisted into rope, sewn together, 
and tolerably fitted to the person, was a fine 
lady's common dress. Add a fringe of grass 
reaching to the knees, hang ornaments of beads 
and shells upon her neck, and varnish her face 
with colored mud, and she was dressed for a 
grand occasion. The San Francisco Indians are 
said to have used a much more simple style of 
dress, plastering their whole bodies with mud, 
especially in the cooler months of the year — 
though, if this were so, the fashion came in 



94 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, vogue probably after Drake's day, or was re- 
served for winter. 

1770. The men made bows and arrows, baskets, 
and nets for fishing, killed some small game, 
and fished a little, when the mood was on ; but 
most of the work was done by the other sex. 
The women went to the woods, gathered the 
acorns that were a staple of food, picked the 
berries, dug the edible roots, gathered the fire- 
wood, cooked, kept house, and cared for the 
children. The a3>LM3 they mashed, wet up 
with water into a dough, and cooked between 
hot stones. Buckeyes they rubbed down with 
water into a thin gruel, and boiled by throwing 
hot stones into the mess. They lield it a god- 
send when a whale was stranded on the coast : 
it relieved them from the necessity of work for 
weeks ; for, like most gourmands who prefer 
their game a little high, they thought the blub- 
ber improved by moderate age ! 

Dancing was a very important part of all 
their entertainments and of their worship. Ex- 
cepting at a few special feasts, the dances were 
generally very modest, the sexes dancing apart 
from each other, though in the same room. 
Their god was a great admirer of a vigorous 
dancer ; so dancing Avas a virtue, and this virtue 
at least was popular. War was never their 
passion ; but if one of a tribe stole a squirrel or 
an ornament from another tribe, they generally 



NATIVE JIEDICAL PHACTICE. 95 

indorsed his theft, and maintained their honor chap. 
with tlieir arms. Th*3 war beiusr ended, the ^^^' 
thief was dealt with as he deserved. Yet it 1776, 
appears that they lived very peaceably most of 
the time, and did very little quarrelling. On 
occasion of their grand feasts, scalps taken in 
war were exhibited on a pole planted on a tem- 
ple. The women and children who were cap- 
tured in wargenerally stayed with their captors 
for life. 

Every town had its chief, but he enjoyed 
very little consideration in the town councils. 
If he transgressed his authority, they deposed 
him. His person was held in veneration, al- 
thono-h his advice mio-ht be treated witb sov- 
ereign contempt. 

Their medical practice was exceedingly sim- 
ple. Herbs, crushed or bruised, and applied as 
a poultice, was the treatment for most external 
diseases. For slight internal ailments they 
smoked the same herbs, or whipped the part 
affected with nettles. For serious diseases the 
cold-water bath was a common remedy; that 
failing, the patient was laid upon the dry sand, 
or ashes, and a fire kindled near his feet, which 
was kept blazing night and day. By his 
head was placed a cup of water, or some gruel. 
His friends then sat down by his side, and 
waited in patience until he recovered or died. 
Of course, they had their quacks, who per- 



96 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOR]SnA. 

CHAP, formed wonderful cures throus;]! the medium 
VII . . 

_^ of a perfect faitli and the entire control of the 

177G. patient's imagination — thus swindling him 
away from under the power of disease. Some 
writers speak of the sweat-house as the never- 
failing remedy for the Indian, whether his ail- 
ment were little or great. It was supposed to 
add very largely to the mortality of the tribes ; 
but their ancestors, " the authorities," believed 
in it, and to the sweat-house they went, whether 
afflicted with typhus or tooth-ache, a tit of indi- 
gestion or the small-pox. 

When one died, he was either buried or 
burned, according as the custom of the locality 
was. Where burning was the fashion, the 
corpse was laid upon a pile of fagots, in the 
presence of the friends, and the bows and arrows, 
and whatever the deceased cherished as his 
property, were laid beside him. When the j)ro- 
fessional burners announced that all was con- 
sumed, the friends retired outside the town to 
do their mourning — the doctor accompanying 
them, and chanting the story of the fatal sickness, 
while they wept. After three days and nights, 
they returned home and cut their hair in token 
of their loss. If the departed were a distant 
relative, the rule required that it be cut half its 
old length ; if it were a j)ai-ent, wife, or child, 
the liead must be shaved close. 

They thought Death was a being who took 



THEIR IDEA OF DEATH. 97 

away a person's breath, and after that there chap. 

was no more of him forever. The punishments '^ 

that they feared from their god were almost i776. 
entirely physical, and pertained to lihis life. 
Still, they thought that the heart of a good 
chief went up, after death, among the stars, to 
enlighten the earth ; hence, that the stars, 
comets, and meteors, were the hearts of great 
Indians departed. Common men had no such 
honor awaiting them, and the chiefs only at- 
tained it by virtue of the fact that, after death 
and before being burned, men who practised a 
modified cannibalism as a profession came and, 
with much ceremony, consumed a small portion 

of their flesh. 
7 



98 THE HISTOEY OF CALLFOENIA. 



CHAPTER Vm. 

DETAILS OF THE MISSION SYSTEM. 

But degraded as was the Indian, the whole 
theory of the Spanish conquest required, and 
i7g] the first principle of the missions was, that he 
should be trained in the simple arts, educated 
in the elements of letters and religion, and be 
made a citizen. The fathers succeeded in 
teaching him to plough and plant, to sow and 
reap, to raise corn, to make wine, to weave 
cloth, to dress leather, to manufacture soap, 
brick, and tiles ; but they never could bring 
him out of his stolid ignorance. The project 
of manufacturing him into a valuable subject 
of Spain was an utter failure. In other of her 
Indian possessions this had been done, but in 
California it could not be. Yet, throughout 
the career of the missions, throughout the nde 
of the Church in California, the Indian was 
always treated as the object of solicitude and 
kindly care. If he was a slave of the fathers, 
it was that he might become a subject of the 
crown. 



THE Missioisrs. 99 

In the political system of tlie country, his ciiap. 
weakness and wants were scrupulously consulted. >_^_, 
The missions were to grow into towns ; the pre- i78i 
sidios were for their defence; and the pueblos 
were established only when it was found that 
the Indians were not competent to sustain the 
missions and the presidios without a heavy 
draft upon the Government at Mexico. The 
first grant of land made within California was 1775. 
to a Spanish soldier, in consideration of the fact 
that he had mamed a native convert. This 
care for the Indians, as the prospective subjects 
and sacred occupants of the soil, was never in- 
termitted until the revolution came that over- 
threw the missions themselves, and California 
was distracted with the civil wars that followed 
its attempt at independence. 

How many Indians there were in California 
when the missions were in their glory, there are 
no means of knowing : not because they were a 
floating population, for those near the coast, at 
least, seldom drifted far beyond the horizon of 
their birthplace ; but they were not reckoned 
worthy of being counted until converted. They 
were more valuable than beasts only as they 
were susceptil )le of conversion. 

The missions were bnilt upon one general 
plan, though they differed in the expenditures 
upon them. In the centre was a handsome 
church, generally built of adobe, whose tinsel 



100 THE IIISTOKY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, and pictures, marble pillars for tlie altar, and 
__;_, 2'old and silver plate, must have struck the In- 
1781. dians as exceedingly line. Close by the chuix-h 
were the residences of the clergy, store-houses, 
granaries, shops for blacksmiths, weavers, and 
soap-makers, all of which were built of adobe 
and roofed with tiles. There were also large 
gardens, and pens for cattle and horses. Two 
or three hundred yards away was the " ranche- 
ria,." sometimes an adobe structure, sometimes a 
collection of wigwams made of poles, which 
had this advantage over the adobe house, that 
when they became altogether filthy, they could 
be burned down, and new ones put on their site. 
Close by the rancheria was a building for a 
garrison of half a dozen soldiers, with their 
families. About the mission as a centre, the 
l>est land of the vicinity, generally a tract of 
some fifteen miles square^ was set apart to it for 
a farm, where the thousands of sheep and cattle 
grazed and pastured. But this was not all that 
the missions claimed. Their boundaries touched 
each other. From the sea-coast to the moun- 
tains, from San Diego to San Francisco, all, 
with a few exceptions to be hereafter named, 
was claimed by the priests as mission property, 
without reference to the number of the estal:*- 
lishments. 

Over each mission was a presiding fathei', 
who had a control of its affairs that was almost 



THE MISSIONS AND PRESIDIOS. 101 

absolute, being responsible only to the presi- chap. 
dent of the missions and the college to which ^^^^' 
he belonged. The ground was tilled, the cattle 1781. ' 
killed, the cloth woven, the vintage nourished 
or neglected, as the father dictated. If he 
were blessed with worldly wisdom, his mission 
flourished, its Indians were fat and contented, 
and its treasury full. If he had no mind for 
such matters, unless indeed his assistant clergy 
were wiser than he, spiritual and temporal 
affairs alike went amiss, the Indians suffered 
fi'om nakedness and hunger, and fumed with 
discontent ; converts were not multiplied ; the 
buildings went to decay ; the mission got a bad 
name. 

To give greater protection to the missions, 
which were mostly inland, four presidios, or 
military establishments, were planted at as 
many sea-ports — San Diego in 1769, Monterey 
in 1770, San Francisco in 1776, and Santa Bar- 
bara in 1780. The presidio was an enclosure of 
from two to three hundred yards square, sur- 
rounded by an adobe wall of about twelve feet 
in height. In this square were a chapel, store- 
houses, residences for the officers, and l^arracks 
for the soldiers. Upon the walls were mount- 
ed sundry small cannon. Near the anchoring- 
ground and aside from the presidio was gene- 
rally a fort of rude construction, also mounted 
Mdth cannon. The presidio was, in theoiy, 



102 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKiaA. 

CHAP, manned by seventy soldiers, but tliat maximum 
^__^ was seldom reached ; most of the number rated 
1781. as cavalry, and a small portion as artillery. 
Tlieir commander had military jm^istlictiou over 
a certain number of missions and the pueblos 
within his limits. Thus the Presidio of San 
Francisco, as late as 1835, had within its juris- 
diction the town of San Jose and the six mis- 
sions about the bay. Tlie commandant stood 
in the place of the viceroy throughout his dis- 
trict. He must assist the missionaries and 
protect their charge, but in no way interfere 
with. them. 

One of the objects of Father Junipero in 
visitino; Mexico was to bring; to an issue a dis- 
pute concerning the mutual rights and relations 
of the military and tlie ecclesiastics. The law 
of the latter toward the Indians was kindness ; 
the former looked down on the red men with 
scorn, and abused them accordingly. They 
made the Indian men work, the squaws carry 
burdens, the children wait upon them, and 
punished them all promptl)^ if they tried to 
avoid work. The priests had complained to 
the viceroy of the behavior of the soldiers ; 
the military had complained to him that the 
priests were meddlesome, aiid in the habit 
of transcending their powers by dictating to 
their equals. The viceroy took the priests^ 
part, invoked the military to pres^^rve harmony, 



17' 



PEIESTLY AND MILITAEY AL'THOEITIES. 108 

to lielp the fathers cheerfully, tr) give them cpiat. 
aid, escorts, and supplies, and to treat the In- _^_ 
dians so kiudl)^ that their example would com- 1773. 
mend their religion. The most explicit advices 
failing to j^roduce the desired harmony, Juni- 
pero went personally to Mexico, and, from the 
Convent of San Fernando, issued the gravest 
charo-es ao;ainst the soldiers, and Don Pedro 
Fages, their chief commandino^ officer. Then 
Fages was peremptorily ordered by the viceroy 
to remove any soldier at the demand of a mis- 
sionary, and to leave the entire management 
of the Indians to the priests. After that, 
though there were occasional jealousies, the 
positions of the two powers were pretty well 
defined, and there was not nuich conflict be- 
tween them. 

The commander of a presidio had authority 
to oTant building;-] ots to the soldiers and other 
residents within the space of four square leagues 
of head-quarters, where it could be done with- 
out encroaching upon the mission. It is not 
certain that this right was ever exercised by 
the captain of the San Francisco presidio, but 
probably it was at San Diego, Santa Barbara, 
and Monterey. 

There were a few farms set apart for the use 
of the presidio so*ldie]*s, but the military did 
not take well to farming; and, excepting for 
grazing purpo'^es, this land was very little used. * 



104 THE inSTOEY OF CALIFOEISTA. 

CHAP. The soldiers were an undisciplined, riotous set 

VIII . 

,_^__, of fellows, mostly mutineers or deserters from 
1781. tlie Mexican army, or felons trans2:>orted to tlie 
wilderness because the prisons of Mexico were 
crowded. Still, miserably mounted and shock- 
ingly equipped as they were, they answered 
every 2:)urpose that was required of them. The 
timid Indians only needed the shadow of an 
army to keep them within the l^ounds of pro- 
priety. When the converted Indians were dis- 
posed to relapse into heathenism, and ran 
away, the soldiers went out on a grand hunt 
and brought them in again, and with them all 
the wild natives that they conld corral. Once, 
at San Diego, the Indians rose, murdered sev- 
eral persons, and burned the mission-houses. 
The soldiers, with a few " terrible examples," 
soon restored tranquillity, and this was the only 
occasion for any warlike demonstration to quiet 
insurrection during the early history of the 
settlements. 

At each presidio a certain number of pack- 
mules were kept for the government service, 
and four horses stood saddled l^y day and eight 
by night, read}' to carry dispatches in any 
direction. 

To relieve the Government of Mexico of the 
heavy burden of supplying tlie presidios with 
recruits and rations, there were established, in 
Father Junipero's day, the pueblos of San Jose 



THE PUEBLOS. 105 

in tlie north, and of Los Angeles in the south, chap. 
Later, in 1795, the Marquis of Branciforte or- 
dered a commission to select a pueblo site in 1795. 
the vicinity of San Francisco. The commis- 
sioners reported that San Francisco was prob- 
ably the worst place in all California for the 
purpose, and so the " Villa of Branciforte" was 
established near the Santa Cruz Mission. It 
never grew to any consequence. Portions of 
its adobe ruins are still pointed out to the 
visitor to that pleasant sea-side retreat. 

These pueblos were reckoned of little account 
— a necessary evil, whose growth beyond a cer- 
tain point was to be discouraged. Each pueblo 
had its common lands, where the cattle were 
pastured, and whence the fuel was obtained. 
Each settler was entitled to an inalienable 
homestead of two hundred varas square, a cer- 
tain number of cattle, horses, and poultry, a 
stipulated quantity of agricultural implements, 
a salary at the outset, and, for five years, ex- 
emption from all taxes. In return, he engaged 
to sell all the products of his lot, beyond what 
his family required, to the presidios, at a fixed 
price ; to keep a horse, saddle, carbine, and lance, 
and hold his own person in readiness for the 
king's service, on demand. After five years' 
occupation, he must pay an annual rent of a 
bushel and a quarter of corn. 

For the first two years after the establish- 



106 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOSInIA. 

CHAP, ment of a puel)lo, it liad an alcalde or judge, 
_, and other town officers of the governor's ap- 
1709- pointment. After that, the officers were elected 
■^^^*^' by the people, subject to the governor's ap- 
proval. The settlers ^vere mostly soldiers 
whose term of service had expired. These free 
towns, which ^vere originally intended to be 
sul)servient to the presidios, as the presidios in 
turn were Imt tlie servants of the missions, 
^vere naturally eyed ^vitll jealousy by the mis- 
sions ; especially, as to them were attracted all 
straggling foreigners, and the trappers and 
hunters who wearied of their adventurous life, 
and were disposed to settle, and end their days 
in a semi-civilized fashion. Very naturally, 
there were occasional collisions "between the 
ecclesiastic and the military authorities ; and 
there was a law-suit of tedious length, brought 
by the college at Mexico to which the priests 
belonged, before the viceroy, because the pue- 
blo of San Jose was established nearer the 
mission of Santa Clara than Father Juuipero 
thought to be wholesome for his Indians. 

But here we are verging upon ground that 
the lawyers of California, and especially of San 
Francisco, have disputed about too much for 
any one not of the profession to travel over it 
without great risks. Early in the career of San 
Francisco, it became a question of importance, 
whether or not it was ever a pueblo. The 



COLO:."IAL HISTOEY IN THE COUETS. 107 

Supreme Court of the State decided that it was chap. 
one ; and the Federal Court of the district has _^ 
pronounced a like decision. L0U2: as the liti- i7G9- 
gation lasted, it was not without some redeem- 
ing results. The legal investigation of the pue- 
blo question, on which hangs the title of the city 
as the successor of the alleged puel)lo to the 
greater part of the lands in its suburbs, threw 
a deal of light upon the system under which 
California was settled, developed many curious 
historical facts that were buried in the S^^anish 
documents of the State archives, and explained 
other things, of which the full records were lost 
in the bustle of the American occupation. 
Dwinelle's " Colonial History of San Francisco," 
published in 1863, was the argument of John 
W. Dwindle, in the United States District 
Court, for the city's pueblo claim for four 
square leagues of land. 

There are those, and Mr. Dwinelle appears 
to be among them, who hold that the Spanish 
and Mexican system for settling California con- 
templated a threefold occupation of the land : 
by the religious pioneers, building up missions 
and drawing the natives around them ; by the 
military, making the influence of the presidios 
meet each other and cover the whole country ; 
and by civilians, congregated in pueblos. On 
this theory, all three were alike, if not equally, 
cherished by the Governmeut, as nuclei of j^opu- 



1846. 



108 THE mSTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, lation and growth into a State. If that were 

VIII 

,_^_, really the theory of those who began the settle- 
1769- raent of California, the failure of the Indian to 
grow into a citizen caused the mission element 
so early to outgrow the others in importance 
and influence at Mexico, that very soon the 
pueblo was deemed an intruder, and the pre- 
sidio only tolerated as the prop and defender 
of the missions. 

Still, it is clear that the mission was never 
intended to be a permanent institution under 
priestly control. Just as soon as the converted 
Indians were educated up to the capacity for 
self-iTOvernment, the missions were to be con- 
verted into pueblos. The " religious " priests — 
that is, priests who had taken the three vows 
of a " regulai- order " — vows of chastity, obe- 
dience, and poverty, and were consequently held 
in law as " civilly dead " — were to be succeeded 
by the " secular clergy," and the mission church- 
es would become parish churches; — in short, 
the missions were to be secularized. It had 
been presumed, at first, that ten years would 
suffice to carry a mission up to the point where 
it could l)e secularized ; but the priests loved 
the missions too well, and their Indian converts 
were too stupid for that. A few missions, forced 
by the impatience of the Government, struggled 
into the pueblo state, but soon ^vent to decay. 
On the other hand, the original pueblos flour- 



SEVEEAL KITSTDS OF PPEBLOS. 109 

isted finely, and several presidios grew so rapid- chap. 
ly in spite of ecclesiastical objections, that they _^J_, 
assumed the rights and privileges of pueblos. i769- 

Much confusion has orio-inated in the some- 
times loose, sometimes precise meaning of that 
word pueblo. It seems to have worn all the 
vagueness of our word toiviiy and like it to have 
had also a specific meaning. The same term 
was applied to a settlement of straggling In- 
dian huts, and to an incorporation with powers 
precisely defined. Moreover, a pueblo might 
be aristocratically called a villa^ like Branci- 
forte, or a ciudad^ like Los Angeles ; but under 
whatever name, it still was a pueblo, with its 
privileges determined exclusively by the num- 
bers of its " reasoning " population. 

California, when first settled, was a depart- 
ment of the kingdom of Spain, and to the viceroy 
at Mexico its governor was responsible. In 1776, 
it became one of the " Internal Provinces," which 
were ruled by a commandante-general. When, 
still later, the Internal Provinces were divided 
into Eastern and Western Provinces, it formed 
a pai't of tlie W^estern, and then its capital was 
either at Arispe or Chihuahua. Still later a few 
years, the old order was restored, and the gov- 
ernor of California, residing at Monterey as the 
capital, was directly responsible to the viceroy. 

Events travelled slowly in those times, and 
it took many years to furnish a chapter of his- 



110 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

( iiAP. tory. Eacli subordinate officer was a despot, 
_^^_^ until liis suj^erior's order came. Loyalty was in- 
17G9- stinetive, and the very distance of the supreme au- 
thority added dignity and weight to his behests. 
The King of Spain forwarded his order to 
the viceroy, who sent a copy to each Spanish 
dependency ; so that a command, intended for 
Peru, came through to Califoi'nia, and was filed 
here as well as there. Among these old kingly 
communications preserved in our State archives, 
Kandolph quotes one for the furnishing of the 
royal park with some of the deer that abound- 
ed, as was said in the neighborhood of San 
Francisco ; and another, that would have been 
more useful in Nicaragua than here, announc- 
ing that a certain archbishop had happily dis- 
covered that when the jiggers have l)urrowed 
into the human iiesh, it is sure death to the in- 
sect to anoint the part affected with cold olive- 
oil ! So, in every corner of Spanish America 
this royal remedy against jiggers was heralded. 
To I'each here, it had travelled a long and 
crooked circuit, from the king to the viceroy, 
to the command ante-genera], to the governoi-, 
to the captain of the presidio, to the flithers, 
who read it aloud to the shivering, dusky 
crowd, who wondered doubtless what sort of 
creature this jigger was, that henceforth, in all 
the dominions of Spain, was to have no chance 
for his life. 



A CALM HALF CENTUEY. 11] 



CHAPTER IX. 

A CALM HALF CENTURY. 

The Indians accepted tlieir new style of life chap, 
with apparent cheerfulness. Its restraints were >— v— 
probably balanced in their reckouincr by the i'^'''^- 
freedom from any peril of hunger or cold. 
Though exceedingly lazy, they got through 
their tasks with ease, and they were apt enough 
to understand readily the simple arts they were 
required to learn. They came together to the 
missions in the morning, at the sound of a l)ell. 
Seven hours a day they gave to work, and two 
to prayer. For their misdemeanors they were 
whipped — the females in private, the males in 
public, for the edification of both sexes. Boiled 
corn was served to them, morning, noon, and 
night. On saints' days and gi-eat occasions 
they had beef, which some of them preferred 
unspoiled by cookery. So soon as an Indian 
was baptized, he was regarded as a member of 
the community, and entitled to feed at its ex- 
pense. He was no longer at lil)erty to return 
to the gentile Indian village, or to his heathen 



112 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, family. He had nothing that he could call his 
own. He was a slave, under a mastership that 

1775- was mild enough, so long as lie did his day's 
work complacently, and said his prayers with 
becoming gravity. 

Without disturbance, without bloodshed, 
with scarcely a ripple on the calm surface of 
their simple society, these occu2)ants of a wild 
and unknown portion of the continent drifted 
through two generations. While America, on 
her eastern border, was convulsed with a war 
that was rending from England her thirteen 
colonies, nothing disturbed the quiet of this 
priest-ruled region. While Spain was passing 
through the fire, this, her distant province, was 
literally occupying a Pacific slope. The old 
cannons on the presidio walls and in the forts 
grew rusty for lack of use, or were buried in 
the rank growth of the sod. The soldiers for- 
o;ot the art of war, and craved the excitement 
of the cattle-ranches. The captains of the pre- 
sidios were sending to the governors of tbe 
province the copy-books of the children in 
their schools. Nearly sixty years this groat calm 
lasted. The Indians grew somewhat skilful in 
their trades. The fathers waxed fixt and patri- 
archal. To start with, they had little of the con- 
suming zeal and unquenchable thirst for explo- 
rations that characterized the Jesuits, and, ns 
their possessions increased, that little vanisbed. 



POPULATION AT THE MISSIONS. 113 

They were contented with the valley in which chap. 
they lived. Mountains, lising abruptly from _^_ 
the plain, bounded their horizon ; they were not i775- 
curious to widen it or discover what lay beyond. " ' 
So the land that was unknown in 1776, was 
scarcely known in 1830. It was only a fringe, 
a few miles deep from the sea-coast, that was 
explored, from San Francisco Bay to San Diego. 
They knew there were such valleys as the San 
Joaquin and Sadramento, but they took no 
steps to possess them. 

In 1786, when the missions were ten in num- 
bei", it was estimated that there were five 
thousand one hundred and forty-three domes- 
ticated Indians in California. In 1790, when 
there were eleven missions, the population was 
set down at seven thousand seven hundred and 
forty-eight ; and in 1801, at thirteen thousand 
six hundred and sixty-eight. Humboldt esti 
mated the population at the close of 1802, of 
the ruling classes, the gente de razo7i, or rational 
creatures of the land, amono; whom were em- 
braced all the whites, mestizoes, and mulattoea 
in the pueblos, presidios, and missions, at one 
thousand three hundred ; and the converted 
Indians of the eighteen missions at fifteen 
thousand five hundred and sixty-two, of which 
number seven thousand nine hundred and forty- 
five were females. 

The list of missions, in the order of their 



114 THE HISTOr.Y OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, population in 1802, would stand as follows: 
San Diego, population about one thousand five 
1802. hundred and sixty ; Santa Clara, one thousand 
three hundred ; San Antonio de Padua and 
San Gabriel, each one thousand and fifty ; 
Santa Barbara, La Purisima Concepcion, and 
San Juan Capistrano, each one thousand ; 
San Juan Bautista, nine hundred and sixty ; 
San Buenaventura, nine hundred and fifty; 
San Francisco, eight hundred and twenty; 
San Luis Obispo and San Carlos de Monterey, 
each seven hundred ; San Jose, six hundred and 
thirty ; San Miguel, San Fernandino, and San 
Luis Rey, each six hundred ; Soledad, five hun- 
dred and sev^enty ; Santa Cruz, four hundred 
and forty. 

The seeds and grains so carefully provided 
by Galvez, flourished beyond expectation. The 
cattle thrived and multiplied like Jacob's flocks 
in Padan-arara. There were plenty of sheep 
and horses and cattle in the land, an al)und- 
ance of corn, wheat, beans, and peas, in the 
fields, and of fruit in the orchards. At the 
south they had grapes in profusion, and olives 
of excellent quality. 

Commerce, scenting great bargains from afar, 
sent around the Horn, from Boston and New 
York, vessels to buy up the surplus hides and 
tallow. As the settlers had no use for gold or 
silver, the traders brought in payment such 



COMMEECE UlSTVEILS THE COAST. 115 

goods as were sure to captivate the wMtes, and chap. 
sucIl stout stuffs as were desirable for Indian ^.^ 
costume. The hides were rated so low, and the iT75- 
goods they brought sold at so high a figure, that, 
after the balance on the first venture was struck, 
the trade was permanently established. 

The Yankee visitors took home tales of. true 
Arcadian landscapes; of a climate beyond 
criticism, where sjiring was perennial, and 
flowers bloomed in the open fields every month 
in the year ; of a fat land, where people lived 
to an extreme old age, and were free, to the 
verge of their departure, from the infirmities of 
declining life; of a country civilized, yet of 
the simplest manners, and whore a fortune could 
be made in a year or two, if one would consent 
to take it in the shape of lands or hides. These 
stories generally passed for travellers' tales, but 
many restless pioneers at the East heard them, . 
who, as they pushed westward before the ad- 
vancing wave of Western settlement, climbed 
the Rocky and the Snowy Mountains, and 
dropped quietly into these valleys before they 
found the country that matched their ideal; 
and so, unobserved, there was quite a sprink- 
ling of American settlers through the country 
before this long calm was disturbed. 

But, because there was no political storm, it 
must not be supposed that the Californians had 
not their share of grievances. They lived in 



116 THE IlISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 



iiTAP. no little fear of earthquakes, perhaps as ninch 



IX. 



because the land has such an unfinished aspect 

1775- in many parts, as from any experience of their 

effects. The Indians said there had alwa}s 

been more or less of them throug-hout the 



*&' 



country, and they early felt tremors enough to 
make them appreciate the low, modest Mexican 
style of building. 

The adobe houses at San Juan Bautista were 
severely injured by an earthquake which oc- 
curred on the 18th of October, 1800; and the 
captain of the San Francisco presidio reported 
to the governor that several occurred early in 
July, 1808, which did no greater damage simply 
for want of more material to destroy. Within 
the four weeks preceding the l7th, twenty-one 
shocks had been felt, that cracked all the walls 
of the captain's house, and threatened the 
entire ruin of the barracks of the fort. On one 
Sunday of September, 1812, the church of the 
Mission San Juan Capistrano was destroyed by 
an earthquake, and thirty persons killed ; on 
the same day the church at Santa Inez was 
thrown down. In 1818, an earthquake levelled 
the mission church at Santa Clara. 

But, more than earthquakes, from first to last, 
they feared foreigners. On the 23d of October, 
1776, the viceroy wrote to the governor to be 
on the watch for Captain Cook, and not permit 
him to enter the ports of California. Informa- 



JEALOUSY OF STEAISTGERS. 117 

tion had reached the King of Spain that Cook chap. 
had sailed, with two armed vessels, from 
London, on a voyage of discovery to the 1776. 
Southern Ocean and the northern coast of Cali- 
fornia. But the world-renowned circumnavi- 
gator never sought an entrance into the king's 
inhospitable harbors. 

Seventeen years later, Spain felt better to- 1793. 
ward the land that had the effrontery to give 
birth to Francis Drake, and orders were received 
here to treat Vancouver well, if he should ar- 
rive. The noise of the French Kevolution, 
and the high doings of " that Lucifer," Bona- 
parte, had reached this coast, and they made the 
English seem friendly, by comparison with any 
thing French. So, when Admiral Vancouver 
turned into Monterey, in 1793, he was received 
with distinguished consideration. 

In 1790, Governor Fages commanded the 1790. 
captain of the presidio at San Francisco, that 
whenever the ship Colicmhla^ ''said to belong to 
General Washington, of the American States," 
which sailed from Boston, 1787, "bound on a 
voyage of discovery to the Russian establish- 
ments on the northern coasts of this peninsula" 
(the good governor thought California a penin- 
sula yet, all the way up to those mysterious 
Straits of Anian), should appear, she was to be 
"examined with caution and delicacy." The 
Coliunhia was on a nobler errand than that of 



118 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, peering into ports where she would be cau- 
tiously examined ; she struck the coast far- 

isyo. ther north, and, by the discovery of the great 
Western stream, gave her own name to the 
Columbia River. 

1803. On the 1st of August, 1803, " at the hour of 
evening prayers," two American vessels, the 
Alexander^ Captain John Brown, and the Asej\ 
Captain Thomas Raben, entered the harbor of 
San Francisco, dropped anchor, and sent ashore 
for permission to take in wood and water. The 
captain of the presidio, finding that Captain 
Brown was the same man who was there five 
months before, refused him permission to remain. 
Next morning the Yankee captain sent in a dole- 
ful account of the hard times he had experienced 
on the northwest coast, and of his sevei-e en- 
counters with the Indians in the Straits of Chat- 
ham. At San Juan de Fuca he heard that the 
ship Boston had been captured by the Indians, 
and burned, and all but two of the crew butch- 
ered. The presumption is that this tale, wheth- 
er entirely true or not, so moved the captain 
of the presidio, that the strangers were permit- 
ted to supply themselves with wood and water. 
The Russians made their first appearance 

1807. about 1807. The czar's ambassador to Jaj^jan, 
Von Resanofi^, after looking at the establish- 
ments of the Russian Fur Comj^any, both on 
the Asiatic and American coasts, and failing in 



RUSSIAN SETTLEMENTS. 119 

an attempt to enter the Columbia River, came chap. 
on to San Francisco. His immediate object v____, 
was to obtain supplies for Sitka ; but once isoT. 
here, he attempted to lay the foundations of a 
regular intercourse between the Russian and 
California settlements. To cement more surely 
the national alliance, he proposed to take as his 
wife the commandante's dauo;hter. The dausch- 
ter and the father were nothino; loth, so the 
ambassador hastened back to obtain from the 
Russian and the Spanish courts the requisite 
authority. On his road through Siberia, he fell 
from his horse, and died from the effects of the 
fall. The disappointed lady assumed the habit, 
if not the formal vows, of a nun, and de- 
voted her life to the consolation of the sick and 
the education of the young, and we hear no 
more of the proposed commercial compact. But 
in 1812 one hundred Russians, and in their 1812. 
company one hundred Kodiak Indians, came 
down from the north, and squatted on a narrow 
strip of land in what is now Sonoma County, 
making Bodega their port. Whether they ever 
had permission from the Spaniards, or whether 
indeed they asked it, is not sure ; but this is, 
that they were never regarded otherwise than 
as intruders of the most unwelcome sort. 
They maintained themselves by virtue of their 
forts and many soldiers, and when at their best 
estate, in 1841, numbered eight hundred Rus- i84i. 



120 THE HISTOET OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, sians, and a great company of Indian stij)endi- 
^___, aries. They raised some grain, kept some cat- 
1841. tie, hunted on all the coasts, creeks, and inlets, 
for seals, beavers, and otters, and scoured the 
country for inland peltry. To circumscribe 
their influence, the missions were founded at 
San Rafael and Sonoma. 

But, quite regardless of their jealous, priestly 
observers, they held in undisturbed possession 
their strip of exclusive territory, trapped wher- 
ever they found game, and in their Greek 
church, among the solemn pines of Fort lioss, 
worshipped the Christian's God, after a fashion 
scarcely less offensive to the zealous papists 
than were the dances of the natives l^efore the 
stufted coyote-skins in the savage temples. 
Without any premonitions, in 1841, they sold 
all their property to Captain John A. Sutter, a 
Swiss, who was to be notable in the next 
twenty yi^ars' history of the country; and then, 
in 1842, after thirty years' quiet occupation, 
they retired. 



CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. 121 



CHAPTER X. 

CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN RULE. 

In 1822, Mexico threw off tlie yoke of Spain, chap. 
and established a separate empire. When the ,^_^^ 
news reached California, the governor (Pablo 1822. 
Vicente de Sola), the generals at the four 
presidios, two militia captains, and one artil- 
lery lieutenant, the prelate of the missions, and 
the proxy of the father president, met accord- 
ing to previous notice at Monterey, and heard 
the documents read which announced the estab- 
lishment of the Mexican empire. Then, with- 
out a dissenting voice, they resolved that hence- 
forth California was independent of any foreign 
state, and would render obedience to Mexico 
alone. The oaths were changed and taken ac- 
cordingly, "and without a struggle the severance 
of California from Spain was complete. 

Father Boscana tells an anecdote illustrative 
of how the Indians about San Diego were af- 
fected by the news that the viceroy had Ijeen 
deposed, and Yturbide proclaimed emperor at 
Mexico. They had a grand feast in the village, 
to which all the neighborhood was invited. 



122 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

ciTAP. The ceremonies were commenced by burning 
,_^1_, the chief alive.. Then they elected another, 
1822. and after eight days of revelry they dispersed. 
When the missionaries heard of it, they admin- 
istered a sharp rebuke to those of their con- 
verts who shared in the entertainment. But 
the Indians replied : " Have you not done the 
same in Mexico ? You say your king was not 
good, and you killed him. Well, our captain 
was not good, and we burned him : if the new 
one should be bad, we will burn him too." 
176T- Governors are governors the world over, and 
'^^^~- are entitled to honorable mention for their 
office' sake. So it is a duty to name the gov- 
ernors of California under the Spanish rule, 
though they governed but a small fraction of 
the people, and, with some excej^tions, really 
had less hand in shaping the course of events 
within the province than any one of the fa- 
thers. They were the despotic masters of the 
military, except as at long intervals there came 
up orders from their superiors at Arispe, Chi- 
huahua, Mexico, or Madrid. But the military 
and the people of the puel dos were all that they 
could control. The wild Indians admitted no 
ruler but their own chiefs ; the tame ones 
looked to the fathers, and the fathers to the 
coUeore, between which and them no civil or 
military ruler intervened. These Spanish gov- 
ernors were nine in number. Their residence 



SPANISH GOVERNORS OF CALIFORNIA. 123 

was at Monterey, the capital. The time of chap. 
their continuance in office was as follows : — w~J^ 

Gaspar de Portala . . • , . 1767 to 1771 1777- 

Felipe de Barri .... 1771 to 1774 1822. 

Felipe «e Neve 1774 to 1782 

Pedro Pages 1782 to 1790 

Jose Antonio Roineu .... 1790 to 1792 

Jose J. de Arrillaga (ad interim) . . 1792 to 1794 

Diego de Borica .... 1794 to 1800 

Jose J. de Arrillaga .... 1800 to 1814 

Jose Arguello (ad interim) . . 1814 to 1815 

Pablo Vicente de Sola . . . 1815 to 1822 

In 1824, Mexico lay down the imperial and i824. 
put on the republican form of government. 
California accepted the change without protest 
or the slightest olDJection. Lacking the quota 
of population essential to a State, she was con- 
stituted a Territory, with the privilege of send- 
ing a representative to Congress, who could 
take part in the debates, but had no vote. The 
governor, henceforth called the " Political Chief 
of the Territoiy," had a council, which was des- 
ignated the "Territorial Deputation." In the 
Deputation a proposition was once made to 
change the name of the Territory from Cali- 
fornia to " Moctesuma," and to make the coat-of- 
arms represent, in an oval, an Indian, with a 
bow and quiver, crossing a strait — an olive and 
an oak tree on either hand ; thus symbolizing 
the supposed amval from across the Straits 
of Anian of the iirst inhabitants of America. 
The proposition was not accepted. 



124 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEISriA. 

These successive political revolutions wrought 
very few social changes among the people. 

1824. They were still as jealous of strangers as ever, 
as chary of their good services outside of their 
own circle. In the archives of the State are 
preserved many evidences that all strangers 
were deemed a nuisance, and those who came 
from the United States of America as especially 
worthy of suspicion. " These Anglo-Americans 
will become troublesome," said a long-headed 
governor of California, in 1805, On the 

182G. 20th of December, 1826, Jedediah S. Smith, 
straying from the East too far into the Great 
Desert, for want of provisions and water to get 
home with, was compelled to push forward into 
California. It stands on the record as among the 
many triumphs of the Smith family, that one 
of them was the first to make the overland trip 
from the States to California. Fortunately, 
Jedediah found here shipmasters from Ameri- 
can vessels who vouched for his honest inten- 
tions and perfect harmlessness. He had 
attempted, during the latter part of the pre- 
ceding winter, to make his way up to the 
Columbia River, ])ut the snow was so deep 
on the mountains that he was obliged to return. 
Being informed by one of the Christian Indians 
that the father would like to know wlio he 
was, Captain Smith wrote a letter to Father 
Duran, who resided at San Jose, in which he 



A PIONEER SMITH. 125 

lionestly confessed tliat lie was destitute of chap. 
clotliing and most of the necessaries of life, ,_^^_ 
that his horses had perished for want of food 1826. 
and water, and that his object was to trap for 
beaver and furs ; and in conclusion he sig;ned 
himself " your strange but real friend and 
Christian brother." 

But it was not Jedediah Smith alone and the 
Americans who were after tlie furs. Even the 
Californians were awaking to the value of 
peltry, and the government of the Territory 
had learned to raise no little revenue from the 
licenses to trap that it was issuing. 

California was under Spanish rule fifty-five 
years, under Mexican but twenty-four ; yet for 
nine Spanish she had thirteen Mexican governors, 
or rather that was the number of successive ad- 
ministrations. The last governor under Spain 
was the first under Mexico. The release from 
European fetters was not a matter that quick- 
ened the California pulse. The new masters 
were greeted as cordially as the old bad been, 
and no more so. The more radical change of 
Mexico from an empire to a republic did not 
fret the lazy Californians. Thej^ would as lief 
be Mexican as Spanish, republican as imperial 
— any thing to keep the peace at home. 

The seeds of mischief, however, had been 
sown before these great political changes were 
announced. Napoleon's attempt to place his 



126 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, brother on the throue of Spain, and the wars 



X. 



that grew out of Spain^s refusal to be so de- 
1813. graded, rolled a heavy national debt U2:>on her 
shoulders. Staggering with the burden, she 
stepped out of the path of her traditional 
policy. The Cortes ordered lands which 
hitherto the crown had always retained for 
itself, to be sold or granted to private parties. 
It was with the object of benefiting the pue- 
blos, said the preamble of the law ; but that 
was a cloak. The real object was, to provide 
means to extinguish the great debt, and to pay 
the soldiers in the Spanish armies. In the same 
year, 1813, the Cortes expressed the opinion 
that the missions ought to be secularized. 

But if Spain had felt herself compelled to 
sell the crown's own acres to raise money, and 
hint impatience with the mission experiment, 
how much more likely would Mexico be to sum- 
mon all neglected resources to her aid, while 
attempting imperial magnificence Avith prodi- 
gality, on a soil naturally so repugnant to every 
thing of the sort ! She did not wait long, 
though longer than she played at empire. 
1824. On the IStli of August, 1824, the Mexican 
Congress enacted a general colonization act, 
which is so liberal as to excite a wonder what 
hidden motive suggested its wiser provisions. 
1828. Four years later, Congress ordered the seculari- 
zation of the missions to proceed, and adopted a 



A COLONIZATIOlSr SCHEME. 127 

system of rules for colonizing tlie territories, chap. 
which evince a clear desire to tole strangers in, 
and make landholders of residents. Governors 1828. 
were authorized to grant vacant lands in limited 
amounts to contractors, families, or private per- 
sons, whether Mexican or foreigners, who 
properly petitioned for them, and engaged to 
cultivate and inhabit them a certain portion of 
time. The grant? must not conflict with muni- 
cipal rights, nor were they valid to contractors 
who encfao-ed to brinic in a number of emio-rant 

CD O C) O 

families, without the approval of the Supreme 
Government, nor valid to other parties without 
the approval of the territorial legislature. The 
mission lands it was strictly forbidden to grant 
until it should be determined whose property 
they were. 

Congress was nibbling at the mission prop- 
erty, but was not quite bold enough to seize it. 
Probably the whole colonization scheme, so far 
as California was concerned, was but a plan to 
make the civil outgrow the religious settle- 
ments there, after which despoiling the latter 
would be an easier task. The year before the 
resfulations above named Avere enacted, the 
Mexican government seized seventy-eight thou- 
sand dollars of the "pious fund," which had 
reverted to the Franciscans when the Jesuits 
were suppressed, and which, during the later 
Spanish regime, had produced a revenue for the 



128 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOUNIA. 

CHAP. Missionary Association of about fifty thousand 

_^_, dollars a year. 

1828- From that time, Mexico never lifted her eye 
from that pious fund. From 1828 to 1831, the 
stipends of four hundred dollars each, for the 
Franciscan monks, failed to be paid with any 
regularity. In 1832, Congress farmed out the 
property of the fund for seven years, the pro- 
ceeds to be paid into the national treasury. In 
1836, Congress, ashamed of that decree, placed 
the fund at the disposal of the president of the 
missions, to be used according to the intention 
of its founders. In 1842, Santa Anna took it 
out of the hands of the bishop of California 
(Pope Gregory had erected California into a 
bishopric in 1840), and intrusted it to the 
chief of the army-staff, to be "administered." 
A few months later, the final blow came : Santa 
Anna sold the pious fund to the house of 
Barrio, and the Kubio Brothers. To convert 
the missions into money, to stuff that always 
empty maw, the treasury of Mexico, was a 
more tedious task. 

The fathers foresaw, from their calm retreats, 
the coriiing of the storm, from the time their 
stipends failed in 1828. That had happened 
before, however. Even under Spain, from 181,1 
to 1818, they had been received very irregu- 
larly, if at all. The cloud might yet blow 
over. 



THE imSSIOIT PROPERTY. 120 

The missions bad a little passed the meridian chap 
of their highest prosperity in 1834. At that '_^ 
time, according to De Mofras, the French histo- 1834. 
rian of California, the twenty-one missions had 
thirty thousand six hundred and fifty Indians 
living in their communities. The horned cattle 
numbered four hundred and twenty-four thou- 
sand ; the horses, mules, and asses, besides the 
wild ones that scoured the plains in troops, 
numbered sixty-two thousand five hundred; 
the sheep, goats, and swine, three hundred and 
twenty-one thousand five hundred; and the 
corn, wheat, maize, and other grains that they 
raised, measured one hundred and twenty-two 
thousand five hundred bushels. The richest in 
cattle and horses, and the greatest grain pro- 
ducer, was San Gabriel. Next to it in every 
thing else, and ahead of it in sheep, was San 
Luis Key, which also had the most Indians. 
The Mission Dolores stood low on the list, with 
its five hundred Indians shiverino; in the wind 
and fog, five thousand horned cattle, one thou- 
sand six hundred horses and mules, four thou- 
sand sheep, goats, and hogs, and two thousand 
five hundred bushels of grain. 



130 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA.. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE MISSIONS SECULARIZED. 

The trouble tLat Mexico was preparing for 
her, came in earnest upon California in 1830. 
1880. It was during tlie administration of Governor 
Echeandia, who was the third of the list under 
Mexico. Monterey was the capital of the Ter- 
ritory, but the pleasanter air of San Diego in- 
duced him, for the sake of his delicate constitu- 
tion, to reside much of the time at the more 
southern port. He was contracted in his views, 
despotic in the exercise of his power, and self- 
ish in his relations with foreis-ners. Occasion- 
ally there was an insurrection to put down, like 
that of Soliz, which surprised the garrison of 
Monterey in the night, and overpowered it, the 
town surrendering without the loss of a drop 
of blood. Soliz received the moneys in the 
hands of the commissary, and was elected 
president of the insurgents, whose manifesto 
declared the intention not to interfere with 
foreigners, nor to interrupt the commerce of the 
country. He had under his command one hun- 



ATTEMPT AT SEOUL ARIZATIOI^. 131 

dred well-armed men, whicli was a powerful chap. 

force for the place and the times, Ijut in the ' 

course of a few weeks Echeandia's party de- 1830. 
feated them, and the ringleaders were sent to 
San Bias. An old friar of the San Luis 
Obispo Mission was found guilty of abetting 
the treason, and he too was embarked on board 
a merchant-ship, and sent out of the country. 

Echeandia, probably under instructions from 
Mexico, though others doubt that, undertook 
to carry into effect the neglected act of the 
Cortes of 1813, for the secularization of the mis- 
sions, which the Mexican Congress in 1828 had 
ordered to be enforced. The devastation of the 
missions now commenced. The Indians were 
encouraged in their refusal to labor ; their 
emancipation, for which the act provided, they 
thought meant freedom from work, and license 
to indulge in every form of vice. 

But the evil day was postponed by the ar- 
rival of a successor to Echeandia, Manuel 
Victoria reached Santa Barbara on the 10th of 
January, 1831. He was a man of courage, and I83i. 
rather headstrong. He came up unattended, 
asking no ceremonious reception. He had 
great faith in his own capacity to rule, and did 
not conceal his disgust at the loose way in which 
matters were managed. He set out to reform 
abuses, without preparing the public for his 
reforms, or very carefully consulting the cdh- 



132 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 

CHAP stitution, from wLich he derived all his authority. 
^..\ He had no patience with the slow course of jus- 
1831. tice. In those days all cases of comphiiiit, civil 
or criminal, went before the pueblo's ayunta- 
miento (or town council), or the alcalde, whose 
duties were those of a mayor and judge com- 
bined. But their decisions had to be confirmed 
by the commander of the presidio before they 
were binding. In a capital offence, the alcalde" 
held a preliminary examination, and sent up 
the accused, if found guilty, to the general for 
trial. 

Two Indians had been convicted of cattle- 
stealing. Victoria oi'dered them to be publicly 
shot in the presidio of Monterey, It was a 
short cut to justice, and it put a stop to cattle- 
stealing ; but it was unconstitutional ; it gave 
his enemies a handle against him, and hastened 
the outl)reak of a revolution. So soon as the 
reins of government were in his hands, he had 
taken measures to counteract the polic}' of liis 
predecessors with i-egard to the missions. 
Echeandia had retired to Monterey, and Inspec- 
tor Pddrez, who had l^een his evil genius, to San 
Francisco. Both busied themselves in drawing 
together the malcontents, who foresaw their 
fortunes in the destruction of the missions. 
Pd,drez, working his mischief too openly, was 
dispatched to San Bias. 

Victoria had placed all confidence in Portilla, 



TEEACHERY — VICTORIA RETURNS. 133 

tlie commander at San Dies-o, and in return chap. 
the commander gave him timely notice that ,_^^^ 
certain persons had met and declared for i83i. 
Echeandia in that extreme southern port. The 
governor, dreaming of no treachery, started out 
with a dozen men to meet Portilla and consult 
with him. As he travelled, he heard that the 
rebels had marched up to Los Angeles, taken 
possession of the town, arrested the alcalde, 
and were pushing on northward, numbering 
now two hundred men. Victoria pressed on 
to meet them, his force increased to thirty 
persons. When they confronted each other, the 
governor called upon the rebel leader to surren- 
der, and then for the first time discovered tliat 
it was his trusted friend Portilla ! Instantly 
the governor's firmest supporter was sliot dead 
by the traitors. Then Victoria, rushing in 
with " sacred fury," and dealing his blows on 
every side, routed the rebels like so many sheep, 
and marched on victorious to the mission of 
San Gabriel, where the loss of blood compelled 
him to halt. Portilla's vagabonds, learning 
that the cham^^ion was badly wounded, rallied, 
gathered about the mission, and demanded the 
governor's surrender. Victoria, seeing his case 
hopeless, replied that, if they would leave him 
to himself, he would resign his command and 
return to Mexico. 

He kept his word. Friends gathered about 



134 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOElSriA. 

CHAP, him, tendered their services, and pleaded that a 

^^ * proQiise extorted could be violated with honor ; 

1832. but he adhered to the letter of his. At San 

Diego he embarked for San Bias, and thence 

retired to a cloister in Mexico. 

The victorious party formed a new govern- 
ment at Los Angeles, and the legislature ap- 
pointed Don Pio Pico governor. But soon, 
news came from the north that the new gov- 
ernment would not there l)e recognized. Echean- 
dia, retreating to San Juan Capistrano, gathered 
about bim many Indians, whom his promises 
enticed from their work at the missions, and in- 
augurated a series of robberies and murders. 
Other Indians at distant points, especially at 
the south, revolted. The Indian was free, and 
as lie staggered along the pathway where he 
had hitherto been a willing slave, he felt that 
his freedom entitled him to do any violence 
that might be convenient. Anarchy ruled 
throughout the province, and confusion covered 
the whole country. 

It was happ)^ for the distracted land that 
Jose Figueroa was the next governor ; but 
his voyage up from Acapulco pi-efigured 
the unhappy state in which he was to find 
his command. The brig in which he sailed, 
accompanied by his officers, soldiers, and eleven 
missionaries from the College of Zacatecas, was 
struck with lightning, while at Mazatlan ; but 



GOVERNOR figueroa's aeriyal. 135 

fortunately, the fire was extinguished just before chap. 
it reached the powder. At Cape St. Lucas the ,_^_ 
troops revolted, declaring for Santa Anna, who 1832. 
was in arms as^ainst the rulino: Mexican faction, 
and. compelled the captain to take his vessel 
to San Bias. The captain returned from that 
point to St. Lucas, took on the governor, a few 
faithful friends, and the friars, and landed all 
safely in California in January, 1833. Figueroa 1833, 
had been ordered to suspend the operation of 
the secularization act, the Supreme Govern- 
ment, though not opposed to the policy, having 
entirely disapproved the method of effecting it 
that Echeandia and Pddrez had attem2)ted. 
Figueroa published a circular, pardoning all 
who had taken part in the revolution against 
Victoria ; and Echeandia went down to San 
Diego, to prepare for returning to Mexico. 

About this time, owing to the growing jeal- 
ousy of whatever reminded of Spain, the juris- 
diction of the missions was divided. The es- 
tablishments north of San Luis Obispo fell to 
the management of the native Mexican friars 
from the Franciscan College of Zacatecas, while 
to the old Spanish Franciscan directors were 
left the missions of the south. 

The Mexican Congress had repeatedly passed 
acts concerning secularization, and afterwards 
annulled them again. But now PMrez, whom 
Victoria had packed off in disgrace to San Bias, 



136 THE HISTOIIY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, was in favor at the capital, and tBrougli his in- 

, ^_, fluence the president gaA^e his sanction to an 

1834. act which Congress had passed (in 1833), or- 
dering the secularization of the missions and 
the colonization of both the Californias. Hijar 
was appointed governor and director of coloni- 
zation, while Pddrez himself was made sub- 
director. Hijar started for his post, accom- 
panied by a large number of colonists, to whom 
half a dollar a day was assigned till their ar- 
rival, with a free passage, and maintenance 
during the voyage. In the brig Natalia he 
arrived at San Diego on the 1st of September, 
1834, with a part of his colonists, who were of 
both sexes. Ptidrez, with the rest, reached 
Monterey on the 25th. The Natalia — it was 
the same vessel on which Napoleon had es- 
caped from the island of Elba — reached Mon- 
terey on the 14tli of October, was beached 
there in a storm, and utterly wrecked. It came 
out, during the bitter discussion that followed 
Hijar' s arrival, that the president had author- 
ized the api^ropriation of fourteen thousand 
dollars, payable in tallow from the missions, for 
the purchase of this brig, and that the colonists 
were organized as a company, with power to 
monopolize the commerce of the country, ma- 
king the missions and towns their depots, while 
all their capital was to be squeezed out of the 
missions. 



A COLONY UNDER IIIJAE. 137 

When tlie news was fairly bruited througli chap. 
California, the missionaries aroused to a new ,^_^__, 
ambition — an ambition to destroy what they had 1834. 
been so long in building. They saw that the 
destruction of the missions was a foregone con- 
clusion. Orders were given, and at once 
obeyed, for the immediate slaughter of the 
cattle. Of thousands tbat were slain, nothing 
but the hides was saved ; the carcasses were 
left to enrich the plains. 

Figueroa had been ordered to provide a prop- 
er spot for the colonists, and he had selected 
San Francisco Solano, on the north side of San 
Francisco harbor, for the purpose. He received 
Hijar with civility and proper demonstrations 
of resj)ect, but showed him that his arrival had 
been anticipated by an overland order to him- 
self, from the secretary of state, not to deliver 
up to him the civil command — Santa Anna hav- 
ing displaced President Gomez Farias, and as- 
sumed the government. Hijar, as simple direc- 
tor of the colony, was reduced to a man of little 
consequence, unless he could get possession of 
the missions, of which the prospect grew dim- 
mer daily. 

But the colonists at Solano were brewing a 
revolt. One of their number, who had been 
chosen as a commissioner to the home Govern- 
ment, proceeded with his friend to Los Angeles, 
under the pretence of embarking from that 



138 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, i^oint for Mexico wltli dispatclies from Hijar. 

^ ■_ But they went no farther than Los Ano-eles. 

1835. There, on the 7th of March, 1835, these two 
Solano men, and some fifty others, dechired 
FiguerOa unworthy of confidence, ap]3ointed the 
first alcalde provisional governor of the Terri- 
tory in civil matters, and Portilla in matters 
military, announced the restoration of the mis- 
sions to the fathers, declared their plans sub- 
ject to the approbation of the Supreme Govern- 
ment, and solemnly averred that they would 
not lay down their arms until all these points 
had been gained. At three o'clock, the same 
afternoon, the revolution was ended, in Los 
Angeles, where it began, their own agent 
havinsr delivered over to the authorities the 
ringleaders. But in other places, especially by 
the colonists, it was for some time regarded as 
an accomplished revolution. These poor fel- 
lows were of all trades and professions, except- 
ino; those which would have been useful to 
them. There were artists and printers, and 
teachers of music, but never a farmer; there 
were goldsmiths, where there was no gold in 
use ; blacksmiths, for a country that employed 
very little iron ; carpenters, where adobe and 
tiles were the principal building materials ; 
painters, for a region where paint was in no de- 
mand ; shoemakers and tailors, for a people who 
shod themselves with raw-hides, and wore 



figueeoa's DEA^rH. 1B9 

blankets instead of coats. In their disappoint- ckap. 
meut tliey talked loudly, and sometimes trea- _^_, 
sonably, and at last the more restless and least 1835. 
prudent of tLem were bauished to Mexico. 

The Mexican scheme of secularization was 
not offensive to the California politicians. The 
Territorial legislature at last came round to 
it. Administrators of the mission property 
were appointed. These swindled all pai-ties 
pretty effectually, but at last turned over all 
the missions to Governor Figueroa. The gov- 
ernor's position was not one to be coveted. The 
missionaries were his enemies, the Indians were 
his enemies, the great horde of swindling spec- 
ulators were his enemies, and all for different 
reasons. He was harassed and perplexed, 
sick and disheartened, and at last he died. He 
was the best governor that California had yet 
seen. Aiming conscientiously to perform the 
very delicate duties imposed upon him, he suc- 
ceeded in what he undertook, but the penalty 
of success was his death. The " Excellent Dep 
utation " in session at Monterey passed the most 
extravagantly eulogistic resolutions in his honor. 
It ordered a portrait of the deceased to be 
painted, and a monument in his memory to be 
erected and inscribed with the flattering title, 
" Father of his Countiy." Figueroa was forty- 
three yeai-s old when he died, on the 29th of 
September, 1835. His remains were carried in 



140 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

criAP. an American vessel to Santa Barbara, and de- 
posited in a vault of the mission clmrcli, min- 

1835. nte-guns being fired as they were conveyed 
from the vessel to the burial-place, and a large 
procession following them to the grave. 



EEBELLION. ' 141 



CHAPTER XII. 

REBELLIOK-*SECESSIOK— RESTORATION.— PANICS. 

After a brief interval, during^ whicli Jose chap. 

. • XII 

Castro acted as governor, Nicholas Gutierrez , l^ 

succeeded to the command, in accordance with i830. 
the will of Figueroa, but he held it very briefly, 
for Mariano Chico was sent up from Mexico to 
be governor. But Chico's tyranny soon brought 
him into disgrace ; he was expelled from the 
Territory, and Gutierrez once more assumed the 
reins. Matters now went quietly enough until 
there broke out a quarrel between Gutierrez and 
the custom-house department, which was sup- 
posed to have been stimulated by resident for" 
eigners, retii'ed hunters and trappers from the 
Columbia River and the Rocky Mountain region, 
and by Mexican adventurers. 

The administrator of the customs was An- 
gel Ramirez, a Mexican, and formerly a friar of 
the Zacatecas Colleg-e. Next in authority was 
Juan Bautista Alvarado, a native Californian^ 
who for years had been secretary of the Terri- 
torial Deputation. He was a person of some 
talent, was educated l)y the missionaries, popular, 



142 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, and acquainted with the English language. 
^_^__^ With this Alvarado, Governor Gutierrez quar- 
1836. relied on a point of etiquette concerning the 
posting of guards at the landing-places. The 
dispute running very high, Alvarado's arrest 
was ordered, but he escaped from the town, and 
the warrant was not served. His asylum was 
the cabin of Isaac Graham, of Santa Cruz, who 
had crossed the Rocky Mountains from Tennes- 
see and settled amono; the Santa Cruz Moun- 
tains. Alvarado told his story to Graham, and 
a scheme was concocted on the spot, with the 
understanding that, if it resulted happily, the 
independence of California from Mexico should 
be declared. Graham raised in a few days fifty 
riflemen, and Alvarado brought to join them 
a hundred Californians, under Jose Castro. 
They entered Monterey at night, having ob- 
tained ammunition from American vessels in 
the harbor, shut up the governor and twice 
their own number of soldiers in the presidio, 
and demanded a surrender. Gutierrez hesita- 
ting, a ball was fired from a brass four-pounder 
— the only shot that was fired during the rev- 
olution — and it struck the roof of the presi- 
dio.* This brought him to terms, and the Mexi- 
cans surrendered. Castro and Alvarado took 
possession of the town. 

The people of Monterey, of California indeed, 
were ripe for the change. They wanted the 



ALVAilADo's INSURRECTION. 143 

Federal Constitution of 1824 restored. As chap. 
there was no prospect of that until the next i_^'_ 
coup d'etat, which, even at the pace of Mexican i836. 
revolutions, might be a twelvemonth oif, the 
proclamation which followed caused no great 
offence, though it showed that Alvarado had 
by unanimous consent been placed at the head 
of the government, and Guadalupe Vallejo 
at the head of the military ; and that the 
Territorial Deputation had adopted resolutions 
declaring California independent, and erecting 
it into a free and sovereign State, whose reli- 
gion was to be Roman Catholic without admit- 
ting the exercise of any other, though no per- 
son was to be molested for his religious opin- 
ion. The southern part of the country did not 
come in quite so heartily to this arrangement, 
but at the north it was accepted with pleasure. 
Gutierrez, his officers and soldiers, were expelled 
from the country, and most of the Mexican of- 
ficials throughout the Territory were sent home. 

It was said at the time, that a flag with a 
lone star on it was prepared for the new Repub- 
lic, but the victorious insurgents lacked the 
courage to use it. With characteristic dread of 
all changes, except in the one item of govern- 
ors, they still kept the Mexican banner float- 
ing on all their public places. 

The Mexican Government fulminated a large 
quantity of paper proclamations at California 



144 . THE IIISTOIIY OF CALIFOllNIA. 

CHAP, for its rebellion, and threatened terrible eliastise- 

XII 

,_^_^ ments. But, there coming Lot work for the 
1837. politicians at Mexico, California was allowed to 
govern herself until there should be peace at 
the capital ; and foreigners, the customs being 
now diminished one-half, were satisiied. Alva- 
rado sent General Castro down to Santa Bar- 
bara, to discover and imj)rove the feeling there 
towards the new government. As Captain 
Graham and his fifty riflemen accompanied 
Castro, all that part of the country was readily 
persuaded that independence was desirable. 

At Los Angeles, a little party proclaimed it- 
self in favor of adherence to Mexico, and grate- 
ful Mexico named as the governor to be defend- 
ed by that party, Carlos Carillo, Alvarado's 
uncle. Carillo declared war at once, but Alva- 
rado soon captured his uncle and set a guard 
over him in his house at Santa Barljara, sent 
off his advisers as prisoners to Sonoma, and dis- 
patched a letter of explanation to Mexico. As 
they were still busy at the capital, the victori- 
ous Alvarado was approved in all his acts, and 
appointed governor; while, to make matters 
right with the vanquished, to Carillo was given 
the little island of Santa Bosa. In return for 
Mexican generosity, Alvarado recognized Mexi- 
co again as the central power, and Upper Cali- 
fornia was divided into two districts, each repre- 
senting a State government, with Castro as pre- 



ALVAEADO THROWS OFF HIS ALLIES. 145 

feet of the Nortli, and Pena, a Mexican lawyer chap. 
who had figured briskly in the revolution of v_^_ 
independence, prefect of the South, while both 1840. 
were subject to the jurisdiction of Alvarado at 
Monterey. Meanwhile, the missions were by 
all parties regarded as fair objects of plunder, 
and the forts of the presidios were left to fall to 
ruins. 

But, as Alvarado grew easy in his seat, the 
remembrance that he owed his elevation to 
foreigners, began to chafe him. There were 
subjects of his who slapped him on the shoul- 
der, and forgot the dignity that belonged to the 
executive. Graham, the Tennesseean, was espe- 
cially obnoxious, for he did not mind telling . 
the governor to his face, that, but for his aid, 
his excellency would still be simply a clerk. 
It was at last an absolute necessity to get the 
Tennesseean out of the way. The nuisance was 
intolerable, and fortune provided an early excuse 
for abating it. Graham had challenged all the 
country to produce a swifter horse on the race- 
course than one that he had trained. A Yankee 
accepted the challenge, and, to make the bargain 
sure, the terms of the race were drawn up in 
v^'iting. The spies of Alvarado got a passing 
glimpse of the document, and construed it into 
a terrible plot to overthrow all that was stable 
in California. 

Castro was sent with an armed force to ar- 
10 



146 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, rest Graliam, at tlie dead of night. Other 

'Y'TT 

" _^ Americaus, and some Europeans, about a 
1840, hundred in all, were seized and taken to Mon- 
terey. Some, who were considered the most 
dangerous, were conducted to Santa Barbara, 
and afterwards fifteen or twenty of them were 
embarked, in chains, to San Bias. This event, 
which was celebrated with a mass and a gen- 
eral thanksgiving, occurred in May, 1840. Two 
months later, a French ship, and the American 
man-of-war St. Loitis, entered the harbor of 
Monterey. Now was Alvarado in a most un- 
happy predicament. Vallejo was not present, 
and Castro had gone to Mexico with the pris- 
oners. Fortunately, in the very nick of time, he 
heard, or feigned to hear, of a disturbance 
among the Indians in the interior. He slipped 
off at once to attend to that, nor did he return 
till the ships of war, finding no party to get 
an apology from, had sailed again. Then 
every thing v/ent on in its old career of quiet 
dilapidation until 1842. 

To the consternation of Alvarado, and the 
1812. amazement of everybody, in July of that year 
the exiled foreigners returned to Montere}'. 
They came in a Mexican vessel, were much im- 
proved in personal appearance, and admirably 
armed. In their absence they had lieen main- 
tained by Government, and now they were sent 
home at its expense. This extraordinary issue 



AEEIVAL OF MICHELTOEElSrA. 147 

of their exile bad been accomplislied through chap. 
the urgency of the British consul at Mexico, 
who succeeded besides in getting the guard of 1842. 
the prisoners themselves imprisoned. 

Meanwhile, Vallejo, who had found Alvarado 
impracticable, from his retirement at Sonoma 
had begged the General Government to appoint 
some one as political governor in his stead ; and 
Alvarado had as earnestly solicited a new gen- 
eral in place of Vallejo. Both were gratified. 
In August, 1842, General Micheltorena arrived 
suddenly at San Diego. He came emj)owered 
to assume both civil and military command. 
Only a moderate force attended him, but close 
behind were enough to make all opposition 
futile. 

Micheltorena was already distinguished as a 
soldier. He had served with Santa Anna in 
the Texan campaign, and he brought away 
laurels if no scars. His soldiers were veterans 
too, veterans in crime if not in war, a hard lot 
of convicts, who brought their wives and chil- 
dren with them, for they were of the sort who 
trundle their fomilies around with them — not 
because they prize their society so much, as be- 
cause they have no other home than the place 
where they feed to-day. 

The new governor was received with dis- 
tinguished honors. A series of grand dinners, 
fandangoes, and bull-fights, was arranged. 



148 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOETS^IA. 

OHAP. Micheltorena was travelling northward like a 
^' prince, and being hailed like a true lord, when 

1842. suddenly word reached him that put fandangoes 
out of his head and lent wings to his feet. He 
and his forces dashed back into Los Angeles at 
a speed quite unbecoming the gubernatorial dig- 
nity. The startling news tliat brought his 
triumphal entry so suddenl}^ to an end was in- 
telligence well calculated to excite alarm. 
Commodore Jones, of the United States Navy, 
had sailed into Monterey harbor with the sloop- 
of-war Oi/ane and the frigate United States, on 
the 19th of October, 1842, had taken posses- 
sion of the town (Alvarado gladly surrender- 
ing on the 20th to a foreigner rather than to a 
Mexican), had run up the stars and stripes, and 
proclaimed the country a portion of the Amer- 
ican Union. The people had saluted the new 
flag with genuine delight. A braver general 
than Micheltorena would have been pardoned 
a swift gait to the nearest place of safety. 

Next day, Commodore Jones pulled down the 
stars and stripes again, and handsomely apolo- 
gized. It was all a mistake. The commodore 
had "blundered" the seizure. He knew the 
programme of the politicians, that Texas was to 
be annexed, that Mexico was to go " on the 
rampage," that the Americans were to discover 
unparalleled outrages on the part of Mexico, 
that finally war was to be proclaimed, and then 



THE SnSTxVKE OF THE AMEEICA]Sr FLAG. 149 

California would be fair game for the Ameri- chap. 
can squadron in tlie Pacific. The commodore, 
knowing so much, misconstrued some rumors i842. 
that he had heard, did not doubt that war was 
declared, and so pounced upon Monterey. 
When he saw his error and had apologized, 
Micheltorena came up to the capital and as- 
sumed control without opposition. That his 
ammunition might be out of the way of the 
Yankees in case of another such freak as that 
of Jones, he stored it with great cai-e a,t the mis- 
sion of P an Juan. 

But Alvarado, deposed, was not idle. He 1844. 
had harmonized again with General Vallejo; 
and the two, aided by Castro, November, 1844, 
captured the Mission of San Juan and the gov- 
ernor's ammunition. Micheltorena gave the 
rebels eight days in which to lay down their 
arms. When that time was up, the parties met, 
disagreed upon the terms of peace, and the Cal- 
ifornians made ready to attack the capital. 
Micheltorena called for help on Captain Sutter, 
whose settlement in the Sacramento Valley had 
become quite an important power in the State. 
The captain consented, but before he would 
start he made a bargain for his friends. Since 
1841 he had enjoyed a grant of land for him- 
self, bad erected a fort near the junction of the 
American and the Sacramento Rivers, and, as 
justice of the peace, ruled the region. He 



150 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

asked — and Miclieltorena granted tliis request — 
tliat every petition for land on wliicli Sutter as 
1844. justice had favorably reported should be taken 
as granted, and that a copy of the general title 
which the governor then conferred should be 
regarded no less binding than a formal grant. 

Sutter and a hundred men then placed them- 
selves at the service of the governor ; but his 
excellency marched with such deliberation, that 
a good part of his foreign allies turned back in 
disgust. On the 21st of February, Cnstro, 
1S45. heading the rebels, pushed out from Los Ange- 
les, and the hostile parties met. As Castro 
had some fifty foreigners with him, by agree- 
ment all the foreigners from both parties with- 
drew, to allow the Californians and Mexicans 
to fight out their own quarrel alone. 

After a brief and bloodless engagement, that 
was resumed next day, when, it is said, four 
persons were killed, Mexico surrendered. The 
California "Deputation" declared its oldest 
minister, Pio Pico, governor. Castro was ap- 
pointed general, and Micheltorena, his ofiicers, 
and all of his soldiers that had not married in 
the country, were put on board an American 
bark and hustled off to San Bias. 

In the spring of the following year, Pio Pico 
still being governor, and Castro busy at the north 
plotting how to oust him — the bone of contention 
being the custom-house, which each wanted at 



GOVEENOK r> WUILE UNDER i'JEXICO. 



151 



the place of bis residence — there glided in from chap. 

over the mountains at the east, a young sur- , 

veyor with a little party of old mountaineers, i846. 
whose appearance brought all Castro's schemes 
to a halt, and put a period to the civil wars and 
the old times in California together. 

The followino; are the names of the Govern- 
ors of California, after Mexico declared her in- 
dependence of Spain, and until the American 
conquest — a term which continued from 1822 
to 1846 :— 



Pablo Vicente de Sola 


Nov. 


1822 to 1823. 


Luis Arguello 




1823 to June 1825. 


Jose Maria de Echeaiidia . 


June 1825 to Jan. 1831. 


Manuel Victoria . . . 


Jan. 


1831 to Jan. 1832. 


PioPico 


. Jan. 


1832 to Jan. 1833. 


Jose Figueroa .... 


Jan. 


1833 to Aug. 1835, 


Jose Castro 


. Aug. 


1835 to Jan. 1836. 


Nicholas Gutierrez, . . 


Jan. 


1836 to May 1836. 


Mariano Chico .... 


. May 


1836. 


Nicholas Gutierrez . . . 




1836. 


Juan B. Alvarado . . . 




1836 to Dec. 1842. 


Manuel Jtlicheltorena . . 


. Dec. 


1842 to Feb. 1845 


PioPico 


Feb. 


1845 to July 1846. 



152 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER xnr. 

THE ''■NATIVE CALIFORNIA NS." 

CHAP. Three times the Californians had struck for 
,_^_^ their independence from Mexico, and won it ; in 
1846. 1832, Avhen they deposed Victoria, and made 
Pio Pico governor, but in the year of anarchy 
that followed were glad to welcome Figueroa 
from Mexico; in 1836, when Alvarado, by the 
aid of the Tennesseean, expelled Gutierrez, and 
straightway forgot the independence he had 
proclaimed, on being recognized by Mexico as 
governor ad interim ; and in 1845, when Alva- 
rado, Vallejo, and Castro, expelled Micheltorena, 
and Pio Pico was again made governor. But 
they never got much farther than to declare in- 
dependence, to adorn the State with a new set 
of offices, and appropriate the customs from the 
shipping. They never fairly claimed the coun- 
try as their own. The right to grant lands 
they seemed to consider as solely resident in 
the home Government, nor do we know that 
they ever demurred to the right of Mexico, at 
the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to stipulate 



THE NATIVE CALIFOENIANS. 153 

their whole territory away. Yet the leading chap. 
men, Pico, Alvarado, Castro, were native Cali- 
fornians. 1846. 

Eleven years had wrought wonders. The 
priestly rule was entirely overthrown. The 
Christian Indians had either relapsed into pa- 
ganism, or^ by intermarriages with soldiers and 
sailors, formed the basis of a mixed race that 
still survives. It was estimated, by Larkin, 
that there were fifteen thousand people in Up- 
per California in 1846, exclusive of Indians. 
Of that number, perhaps two thousand were 
from the United States. They had come from 
over the mountains, had tarried from vessels 
that stopped at the various harbors, or had 
drifted from the Columbia River region. Trap- 
pers retiring from their hardy pursuits had 
taken up their residence in valleys that suited 
their fency, far away from points of contact 
with the Mexican settlers, and in portions of 
the country that the missionaries had nes^lected 

The people that made up the body of the 
population were dashing and careless, fond of 
fandangoes, always ready for a dance, making 
the most of their religious holidays with bull- 
fights and bear-baitings, and almost universally 
given to gambling. Monte was their favorite 
game, in which all classes, and men and women 
alike, engaged. They accepted their good 
fortune without any lively demonstrations of 



15-i THE niSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, joy, and. their losses did not disturb their com- 
,..^^__, posure of mind. On Sunday afternoons, devo- 
184G. tions being ended, they generally surrendered 
themselves to some sort of gay festivity. 

There were few such riders in the world. 
Wild horses, though every one had his claim- 
ant, scoured the plains in droves, and those that 
were accounted tame would seem to any other 
people quite unbroken. When a gentleman 
set out on a journey, he took a driver and a 
drove of horses with him. As one animal 
wearied of the saddle, another was made to 
bear the burden. In this way a hasty rider 
would accomplish his hundred miles a day. If 
a horse gave out on the road, he was turned 
loose to find his way home at his leisure. His 
owner's name was branded on his flank ; there 
was little dano-er of his beina: lost ; but of his 
being stolen there was great danger, since with 
the Indian, relapsed into barbarism, horse steal- 
ing was a passion. 

The child, at a very early age, was taught 
to ride at a breakneck pace, and with the use 
of the lariat every one was dexterous. 

The saddle was an elaborate piece of work- 
manship. The stirrups were of wood, and 
set well back ; the skirts were broad, and 
pierced for strips of raw-hide with whicli to 
lash fast the blankets and bao;o;ao;e of the rider. 
It was fastened very tightly by a wide girth, 



EXCELLE]^T HORSEMEN. 155 

witliout the aid of a buckle, and in a manner chap. 
that made slipping or turning impossible. >_^__, 
Over its high pommel was coiled the inevitable 1840. 
lasso. The bridle, like the lasso, was of braided 
rawhide. To the bit was attached a cruelly 
long spur, running back upon the beast's 
tongue, so that the slightest pull at the bridle 
compelled obedience without much reference to 
the original intentions of the brute. He soon 
learned to take his cue from the weight of the 
rein upon his neck, and the horseman dashed 
along the highway, generally at full gallop, 
with loose reins. A poor man might own a 
dozen horses, but he was rich who was sup- 
plied with the complete furniture for one. 
When overtaken by night on the road, the 
saddle was his pillow ; the blankets, unrolled 
from the bundles that they were as they dan- 
gled from it, were bedding and covering enough 
in so mild a climate; and the ever-useful lasso 
limited the range of the horse, as he fed on the 
wild oats of the valley. 

It was not until the Indians discovered how 
delicate and savory roast horse-flesh was, that 
the tribe of horse-thieves sprang into exist- 
ence, but then they grew with astonishing rapid- 
ity, till they were the terror of all the country. 
Their chief haunts were the valleys of the San 
Joaquin and its tributaries. Temperate writers 
estimate that from five thousand to ten thou- 



156 THE inSTORY OF CALIFOR^^IA. 

CHAP, sand horses were stolen and eaten in tlie twenty 
,____, years between 1827 and 1847. It is impossi- 
1846. ble to conceive how frightful the nuisance was, 
unless we bear in mind how large a proportion 
of the male population jingled immense spurs at 
their heels perpetually, and that, unhorsed, the 
Californian considered himself but half a man. 
Their houses were one story high, generally 
l3uilt of large unburued bricks, or adobes, 
floored with clay, and roofed with tiles. The 
pleasures of the table were not foremost in 
their thoughts. The supply of flour for the 
day was ground in hand-mills each morning 
from the grain. Tortillas — simply thin cakes 
of meal beaten by hand and baked before 
the fire — figured at eveiy meal. Beans were 
a staple article of diet. Red pepper entered 
into the composition of every cooked dish, and, 
like onions, were cultivated in every garden. 
The table-drink was generally water. The 
use of milk would have implied tame cattle and 
work, so its presence was I'are. The j)oorest 
householder had plenty of beef in his pot. 
The butchered animal was hung up under the 
shade of the oak, close by the house. In the 
clear, dry air, there was no risk of its tainting 
before the knife had cut ofi", day by day, the 
tenderer parts for the family, and the tougher 
for the troops of dogs that stretched themselves 
lazily in the sun. 



THEIE CATTLE. 15T 

The cattle introduced by Governor PortaU chap. 

• XIII 

and Father Junipero had increased beyond all _^__, 
calculation. They formed the principal wealth 1846. 
of the missions at one time, and for leagues 
the higher grounds were spotted with bullocks, 
while the valleys, for acre upon acre, waved 
with growing grain. There was food enough 
for all. 

Every year all the cattle belonging to one 
party were gathered to a rodeo ; that is, driven 
together and passed through a corral or pen, 
where they were branded with the owner's 
mark, or at least old brands inspected, and 
other necessary operations were performed upon 
the calves. It was always a merry occasion, 
beautifully adapted for the display of horseman- 
ship in capturing and controlling the Avild cat- 
tle ; and, both because of its own charms, and 
to prevent the branding of other folks' cattle, 
the neighbors generally came in to share its 
sports. Every cattle-owner of course had his 
special brand, and his marking-iron was de- 
posited with the alcalde of the district. 

The mission gardens were hedged in with 
willows — at the south, with rows of the gigan- 
tic cactus. Fruit-trees were planted about the 
missions very generally. Shade-trees in the 
vicinity of houses were never in favor, but long 
alamedas, or shaded walks for the convenience 
of distant worshippers along the line of travel 



158 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, from the pueblos to tlie cliurclies, were pretty 

^_^_^ features of tlie landscape. 

1846. Both sexes were excessively fond of dress, 
but they found little opportunity to humor 
their fancy in that matter. They had few of 
the luxuries of life, however crreat their wealth 
might be. With the extortionate impost du- 
ties, few elegancies were imported, but for tlie 
finery that did arrive they paid enormous 
prices. 

From Mexican ports they got rice, sugar, 
silk, scarfs, and woollen shawls, shoes, saddles, 
and some English and American goods. Be- 

1822. fore 1822, they exported little except a few 
hides, some tallow, a trifle of wine, and perliaps 
some wheat. But in that year a Yankee ship 
appeared with a cargo of notions, and she 
proved the pioneer of a trade that made many 
a Bostonian rich, that bewitched the Califor- 
nians of both sexes, and put the local authori- 
ties in excellent humor, for they taxed customs 
generously, and seldom or never sent a shilling 
of what was collected to the Mexican Govern- 
ment. 

These Boston traders kept one or two ves- 
sels on the coast, which took out a coasting 
license and sailed from port to port between 
San Diego, where the hide-houses were, and 
San Francisco, near whicli were the most 
northern missions. They took in any thing 



STEANGEES DROPPING IN". 159 

tliat was for sale, but chiefly hides and tallow, chap. 
and paid for them, from the well-appointed ._,.^^_i, 
" store " on board, where the more tempting issc. 
goods were displayed in show-cases. Hats, 
hoes, shoes, shovels, calico, crockery, ribbons, 
hardware, groceries, furniture — every thing, in 
short, that a Californian coveted, or which his 
taste could be educated to covet — was for sale 
on board. Two or three times a year the ships 
dropped down to San Diego and stored their 
hides. Finally, one of them would be quite 
loaded and dispatched for Boston, the other 
continuing the collection until a new ship with 
fresh supplies of "notions" arrived, to keep her 
company in coasting imtil her own time came to 
be left alone. It was in one of these hide-ships 
that Richard H. Dana sj)ent his two years he- 
fore the masty of which he wrote so readable 
and still popular an account. 

The administration of justice was a very simple 
matter. They had no written statutes. Equity 
was the law which the magistrates were expect- 
ed, if honest, to enforce. All minor offences and 
actions, involving less than one hundred dol- 
lars, were examined and determined by the 
alcalde. If the offence were great or the pen- 
alty capital, he made a preliminary examination, 
and sent the convicted party to the first judge 
of the district. If an action involved more than 
one hundred dollars it was tried by the first 



160 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, judge, and carried on appeal to tlie prefect or 
governor. Either party miglit demand a jury, 
1840. whicli generally consisted of three or five per- 
sons. When honest men were on the bench, 
they came to the substance of the thing in dis- 
pute with great promptness, and the law had 
no delay. When rogues held the balances, they 
suited themselves without much interference, 
and Justice was dumb as well as l)lind ; for it 
was a trait of California character that when an 
appeal had been taken to the law, its decisions 
were borne with patience and in quietness. 

The New England whale-ships, famous al- 
ways for spying out good harbors in queer 
out-of-the-way places, were early accustomed to 
look in at San Francisco and Monterey ; and 
not a few fine farms in the country were in 
the hands of whalers, who had given up their 
"lay" on board, stopped ashore, taken wives 
at least half Indian, neglected to learn the 
Spanish language, and brought up their large 
families on frijoles and tortillas in adobe 
houses. 

After 1840, immigrants from over the plains 
had begun to settle in the Sacramento Valley, 
getting grants for the asking from the Govern- 
ment, or taking, by consent, a slice out of some 
early settler's broad claim. All these brought 
mth them the impression — and most of the 
Englishmen in California assumed the same — 



STRANGERS DROPPITSTG IN. 161 

that in a few years the region would all be chap 
under the flag of the American Union. 

They did not,, like the Puritans, however, i846. 
plant first a church, and then a school-house. 
The church they quite forgot; and the only 
schools, outside of the decaying missions, were 
poor apologies for them, and scarcely worth 
the name, where it was not pretended to teach 
much beyond reading and writing. Nor were 
those accomplishments of much account with 
the natives, or greatly practised by the immi- 
grants. 

11 



162 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOKNIA. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FREMONT AND THE BEAR-PARTY REVOLUTION. 

CHAP. We left Castro diverted from all his schemes 
^^ ■ against the government of Pico, which he had 
184(3. helped to establish, by the apparition of John 
Murcii. (3|j.^i4eg Fremont from over the plains. This 
young pathfinder, then a brevet captain in the 
corps of United States Topographical Engineers, 
had been dispatched, in the spring of 1845, on 
a third tour of exploration across the continent, 
and especially charged to discover a better route 
fi'om the western base of the Rocky Mountains 
to the mouth of the Columbia Kiver. He ar- 
rived on the frontier of California early in 
March, 1846, prudently halted his company, 
then consisting of sixty-two men, some hundred 
miles away from Monterey, and proceeded alone 
to General Castro's head-quarters. His errand 
was, to obtain permission to take his company 
to the valley of the San Joaquin, where there 
was game for his men, grass for his horses, and 
no inhabitants to be molested by his presence. 



FEEMONT AND HIS EXPL0EER8. 163 

Castro received Lim with courtesy, and told chap. 
liim to go wherever he pleased — the whole 
country was free to him. Fremont suggested i846. 
that it would be pleasant to have the permis- 
sion put in writing, but Castro was quite too 
"sick" for the effort; so he gave "the word of 
a Mexican soldier, which was his bond." Fre- 
mont returned to his men, who at once broke 
up camp to remove to the San Joaquin Valley. 

Castro, upon reflection, seems to have felt 
that now was the coveted opportunity to distin- 
guish himself with the Government of Mexico, 
which, smarting under the recent loss of Texas, 
could have no excess of aifection for the Ameri- 
cans. He was speedily in his saddle, and spur- 
ring about the country, arousing the Californians 
to ex]3el the strangers. His work sped bravely; 
in a few days he had raised a company of three 
hundred men. He now sent word to Fremont 
to quit the country at once, adding also a threat 
that if the orders were not complied with, he 
would attack his company, and devote every 
man among them to destruction. For his sud- 
den change of demeanor he had the decency to 
plead fresh instructions from Mexico. 

Fremont was not entirely unprepared for the 
general's treachery, having been posted from 
Consul Larkin, of Monterey, as to the value of 
" the Mexican soldier's word." He sent back 
an oral message that he would hold no corre- 



164 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

(TiAP. spondence witli a may who had so shamefully 
J_^_^ broken his faith, and that he should go when 
1846. he was ready. He then took his position on 
the " Hawk's Peak," a height overlooking Mon- 
terey from a distance of some thirty miles, in- 
trenched it, and raised the American flag. 

His men were exhausted with their long 
tramp through the deserts and over the moun- 
tains. They needed repose and refreshment; 
but if these wei'e not to be had, they were 
quite ready to defend themselves to the last. 
Secretary Marcy, in his report to the President, 
was careful to insist that there was not in the 
comj^any an officer or soldier of the United 
States Army. They were scientific explorers, 
rough, hardy pathfinders — reliable in any emer- 
gency — true as steel. Six of the number were 
Delaware Indians — the leader's body-guard. 
Kit Carson was there, and others worthy to 
keep his company. Each was armed with a 
knife, a tomahawk, two pistols, and a rifle — not 
a very desirable company to attack, and evi- 
dently one not to be frightened out of its self- 
possession. 

Castro manoeuvred his dashing cavalry for 
three days in full sight. He displayed a fair 
show of infantry, too, and, through their 
glasses, the Americans saw a body of artillery 
getting field-pieces in place. He issued re- 
peated bulletins about the " foreign vaga- 



INHOSPITABLE EECEPTIOlSr OF FREMONT. 165 

bonds," and several times inspired his cavalry chap. 
to charge : they charged gallantly, but always ^_^_, 
wheeled before coming within bullet-reach, ap- 1846. 
parently concluding that, for every rifle before 
them, there would be an empty saddle in their 
ranks ; and native Californians wisely held that 
it were a foolish thing for such good riders to 
be permanently unhorsed. Then Castro him- 
self must have considered that an actual attack 
would array against him all the foreign settlers 
of the valley. If numbers and fierce demon- 
strations would send the adventurers flying out 
of the countiy, his purpose would be gained. 
If not, he could afford to keep on manoeuvring 
and writing proclamations. Perhaps the little 
band would be foolhardy enough to make an 
assault upon their persecutors ; in that case he 
could run. So really there was nothing to be 
lost by Fabianism. 

It was dull sport to Fremont, however. He 
had been charged on leaving home to provoke 
no hostilities with the Mexicans, and he was 
impatient at this detention from his legitimate 
work. So on the fourth day, seeing no in- 
creased i^rospect of an attack, his party broke 
up their camp and leisui'ely moved oft' north- 
ward, toward Oregon. Castro, delighted with 
so easy an 0])portunity to herald a victory, was 
careful not to follow. 

Fremont had passed the Oregon border, and 



166 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, by the 9tli of May was on tlie northern shore 
'^^' of the Greater Klamath Lake. Here word was 
184(!. brought him that an officer of the United States 
May. ^ri-Qj with dispatches was on his trail. In- 
stantly, with nine men, he turned back upon 
his track to find the unknown messenger, and 
fortunately came upon him the next evening. 
The stranger was Lieutenant Gillespie, of the 
Army, who had left Washington the Novem- 
ber previous, had crossed the continent from 
Vera Cruz to Mazatlan, arrived at Monterey in 
a United States sloop-of war, and thence has- 
tened up the Sacramento Valley to overtake the 
explorers. If the Mexicans had arrested and 
searched him, as the threatening relations of 
the two republics made not unlikely, they 
would have found no suspicious papers upon 
his person. All that he bore was a letter from 
the Secretary of State, commending the bearer 
to Fremont's good offices, and some private let- 
ters from the captain's distant femily. There was 
not a word of politics in them, or of war with 
Mexico, or of the future of California; but 
there were some expressions in a letter from 
Colonel Benton that the old senator's son-in- 
laAV studied with extraordinary diligence. No 
doubt the oral conununications of, Gillespie 
helped to draw from them a deeper significance 
than the words conveyed on the fii'st reading. 



Fremont's camp attacked. 167 

At an}" rate a new resolution was taken before chap. 
the last of the party had retired for the night. 

After the excitement of the day, for in the 1846. 
life of such Wanderers there is no such excite- ^^' 
ment as news from home, the usual vigilance 
was relaxed, and all slept soundly until awaked 
by a cry fi'om Kit Carson. The Indians had 
broken into their camp ; Lajeunesse, one of Fre- 
mont's most devoted adherents, was uttering 
his death-groan ; and three of his trusty Dela. 
wares were killed before the assassins could be 
driven back and disjDersed. 

Whether Castro really had tampered with 
the natives, as was then thought, or whether, 
as was suspected afterwards, the hot fi*iendsof 
a scheme on foot to give to England the protec- 
torate of California, had stimulated the savages 
to violence, is not known; but the resolution 
of the night before was now irrevocable. Fre- 
mont determined to become the pursuer rather 
than the pursued, to turn upon the faithless 
foe, and revolutionize the Government. 

This would have been a hazardous course for 
the reputation at home of one sent out on a 
scientific errand, unless, either in his secret in- 
structions before starting, or in the advices con- 
veyed by Lieutenant Gillespie, he was assured 
that a successful indiscretion of the sort would 
be acceptable to his Government. As to the 
precise plan that he adopted, there is no doubt 



■NT., 



168 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, that he consulted his own judgment alone. But 
■ there is abundant circumstantial evidence that 

1846. he was given to understand that any defensible 
method of gaining California to the Union 
would be acceptable. President Polk's Admin- 
istration had taken the position that the north- 
ern Oregon boundary was some nine degrees 
higher than Great Britain conceded. " Fifty- 
four forty, or fight," was a party watchword for 
a while ; yet when the issue was pressed, the 
forty-ninth parallel of latitude was accepted as 
the boundary, and the fighting was deemed 
unwise. It would atone for this ungracious is- 
sue, if by an aj)j)arent accident, or at least with- 
out any interposition of our Government, the 
whole of California should tender itself as the 
next subject of annexation to the growing Re- 
pul)lic, whose manifest destiny, as every stump 
speaker and bar-room politician now clearly 
saw, required the absorption of all that was 
southward down to the tropic of Cancer. 

A hint was enousfh for one so ambitious as 
Fremont, and if he was not instructed, he cer- 
tainly was most fortunate in his instincts. A 
different issue to the revolution he inaugurated 
might have overwhelmed him with reproach. 
As it resulted, he had the perfect and flattering 
indorsement of the Secretary of State. The 
South was delighted with the new area for 
slavery that the conquest opened, and the North, 



FREMONT ATTEMPTS A EEVOLUTION. 169 

admiring tLe gallantry of the conqueror, lay all chap 
the blame of "plotting to rob Mexico" on the 
shoulders of the Administration, whose instruc- 1846. 
tions they contended that he obeyed. ^^' 

But the country was not conquered yet. 
There was a deal of proclaiming, manoeuvring, 
marching, and even some fighting to do before 
the finest country in the world would drop from 
the impotent hand of " the sick man, Mexico," 
into the palm of the United American States. 

Fremont returned with his party to the Val- 
ley of the Sacramento, and encamped at the 
Buttes, near the mouth of the Feather River. 
He found the scattered settlers in a state of 
high alarm. They had put the worst interpre- 
tations upon Castro's proclamations, and did 
not doubt that the time had come when they 
must either be driven out, or defy the authori- 
ties of the land and overawe them. 

While the excitement was at its height, an 
Indian from below told the story that he had 
seen between two and three hundred armed 
men advancing up the valley. This alarming 
tidings was spread to the remotest settlements 
as fast as the swiftest riders could carry it, and 
instinctively the settlers rallied to the camp of 
Fremont. There the foundation of the story 
that aroused them was soon learned. Castro 
had ordered Lieutenant De Arce, commandant 
of the garrison at Sonoma, to remove a large 



170 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, number of Government horses from the Mission 
._^_, of San Rafael, on the north side of San Fran- 
1846. CISCO Bay, to Santa Clai'a, at its southern ex- 
tremity. To accomplish this, De Arce, with a 
guard of fourteen men, ascended the Sacramento 
Valley to New Helvetia, the nearest point 
wliere the horses could safely swim the river. 
The Indian had seen the horses and the guard, 
and he presumed the rest. But the bearer of 
the true version added that he had conversed 
with De Arce, who told him that Castro wanted 
the horses to mount a battalion of two hundred 
men and expel the settlers. It was deemed 
wise to frustrate this attempt without waiting 
for any 2^01'tion of it to be accomplished. 
Twelve volunteers, under command of Mr. 
Merritt, the eldest of their number, were dis- 
patched to overtake De Arce, On the lltli of 
June. June they surprised the object of their pursuit, 
gave to each of the guard a liorse to ride home 
with, and charged De Arce to report to Castro 
that if he wished the rest of the drove he must 
come and take them. Merritt's party then 
marched on to Sonoma, and at daybreak of the 
15th entered and captured that military post, 
of which the honest spoils — they took no other 
— were nine brass cannon and two hundred and 
fifty stands of arms. They also made prisoners 
General Vallejo and tv/o other persons of con- 
sideration in the province, and sent them ofi 



THE BEAR PARTY. 171 

under an escort for safe keeping to Sutter's Fort chap. 
at New Helvetia. -l-v~ 

Eio-liteen men, under William B. Ide (a na- i84fi. 
tive of New England, and then but one year ^"®' 
resident in the country), were left in Sonoma 
as a garrison, but, as tlie news spread, the force 
was soon increased to forty. 

Castro heard of these presumptuous doings, 
and on the iTtli fulminated a proclamation from 
his head-quarters at Santa Clara. He called 
upon his fellow-citizens, in the name of their 
religion, liberty, and independence, to rise irre- 
sistibly for retribution upon the contemptible 
and daring invaders. 

On the following day, Mr. Ide, the garrison 
consenting, issued his proclamation — crude in 
its style, and in its allegations quite unsup- 
ported by facts, yet commend ably explicit and 
direct — to all persons in the district of Sonoma, 
requesting them to remain at peace and follow 
their rightful occupations, without fear of mo- 
lestation. The insurgents, so the proclamation 
declared, had been invited to the country under 
promise of lands to settle on, and a republican 
government. But these promises (who made 
them does not ap23ear) were violated. They 
were denied the privilege of either buying or 
renting lands. Instead of a republic they were 
treated to a military despotism, and were 
threatened with extermination. They had 



172 THE mSTOKY OF CALITORISXA.. 

CHAP, risen for self-protection, and tlie overthrow of 

XIV 

_^_, a government tliat had seized the property of 
1846. the missions for its individual ao-ofrandizement 
' ""^" and " had ruined and shamefully oppressed the 
laboring people." To assist in establishing and 
perpetuating a republican government, all peace- 
able and good citizens of California were in- 
vited to repair to the camp at Sonoma without 
dela}^ 

Ide's proclamation, if not couched in more su- 
perb language than Castro's, drew l^etter, and his 
camp soon had men enough to spare a party to 
go out and break up a gang of desperadoes, 
under one Pad ilia, who had l^rutally tortured 
to death two young men captured on their way 
to Bodega. Lieutenant Ford commanded this 
expedition, which mustered twenty-one men. 
He came upon the enemy between Santa Rosa 
and San Rafael, and found them far stronger 
than he had anticipated, they having been re-en- 
forced by Captain Te la Torre, and numbering 
now eighty-six persons. Ford engaged them, 
killed eight, wounded two, set the rest into pre- 
cipitate retreat, and, without loss to his own 
party, returned to Sonoma. 

The party at Sonoma seems to have declared 
an independent State, and some say that Ide 
was elected governor. Of course a flag was 
needed, and with such rude appliances as were 
at hand they produced one whose like had not 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 173 

been seen before. On a sheet of cotton clotb, chap. 

XIV 

with a blacking brush and a pot of beriy juice, v__.^ 
a tolerable likeness of a giizzly bear was painted. 1846. 
This was the " bear flag," and the party that 
raised it has gone into history as the Bear-Flag 
party. The rude flag is still preserved as a 
choice relic by the California Society of Pioneers, 
and on notable occasions it has been borne in 
procession by the society. 

Meanwhile, Fremont was busy among the 
settlers organizing a battalion. It was on the 
23d of June that he heard at Sutter's Fort that 
Castro was crossing the bay with two hundred 
soldiers to fall upon Ide's garrison. Thirty-six 
hours later he and his ninety riflemen had put 
eighty miles behind them, and were at Sonoma, 
but the only enemy noith of the Bay of San 
Francisco was De la Torre's retreating force. 
No pains w^ere spared to prevent their escape 
from the peninsula. Once Fremont's scouts 
fell in with the fugitives, killed or wounded 
five, and captured nine pieces of artillery. But 
the main body, coming to Saucelito, had the 
good fortune to find a boat just arrived. This 
they seized, and so made good their escape across 
the bay — notable as the last Mexicans that 
were on the soil north of the bay, claiming it 
for any other Government than the American. 

Fremont dispatched a party of ten, under K. 
Semple, to cross to San Francisco, to take piis- 



iT'i THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOllNIA. 

OHAP. oner the captain of tlie port, R. T. Ridley, and 
_^_ convey Mm to Captain Sutter's residence and 
1846. fort, wliicli was to serve as a prison. The task 
was successfully performed. Fremont himself, ac- 
companied by Kit Carson, Lieutenant Gillespie, 
and half a score of others, crossed in a launch 
to the old fort near the presidio, spiked its ten 
guns, and returned to Sonoma. There, on the 
July. 5th of July, 1846, he called the whole force 
together, and recommended an immediate decla- 
ration of independence. All present united to 
make such a declaration, and with the same 
unanimity intrusted to Fremont the direction 
of affairs. Thus the bear party was absorbed 
into the battalion, whose roll-call now showed 
one hundred and sixty mounted riflemen. 

Next day the pursuit of Castro began. He 
was imderstood to be intrenched in Santa 
Clara with four hundred men. To get there 
it was necessary to ascend the Sacrameiito and 
cross at Sutter's Fort. The battalion effected 
the crossing only to learn that Castro was re- 
treating towards Los Angeles. To Los Ange- 
les then they must follow him, four or five hun- 
dred miles distant though it was. As they were 
just about to move forward, news came that the 
flag of the United States had been raised by 
the American naval force at Monterey, and 
that the American fleet would co-operate in 
the effort to capture Castro. Down came the 



DECLAEATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 175 

flag of independence, up went tlie stars and chap, 

stripes, and, rejoicing that they had the law as v— ..^L 

well as right on their side, on the}^ dashed south- 1846. 
ward. Leaving Captain Fremont on the gal- 
lop, we turn now to the operations on the 
coast. 



176 THE HISTOEY OF CALLFOENIA. 



CHAPTEE XV. 

TEE AMERICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. ^^ the 2d of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat 
-^^- arrived, in the United States frigate Savannah, 
184(3 at Monterey. In the instructions that Secretary 
•^"''"- Bancroft had given him, he was charged to be 
careful to observe the relations of peace, unless 
they were violated by Mexico ; in that case, he 
was, without further notice, to employ his fleet 
— all told, it numbered one frigate and five 
smaller vessels — for hostile purposes. Before 
he left Mazatlan he had heard of movements 
that could scarcely fixil of precipitating the two 
republics into war. The annexation of Texas 
had been several months accom})lished ; Mexico 
was boiling with indignation in view of it, and 
every movement of the American Administra- 
tion seemed to be hastening the inevitable col- 
lision. All this Commodore Sloat knew; but 
he could not know that President Polk's am- 
bassador, Slidell, had visited Mexico, tendered 
his offer of money for a peaceable boundary on 
the Rio Grande and the cession of California, 



■ COMMODORE SLOAT ON THE COAST. 177 

and that the bribe had been spurned ; nor that chap. 
General Zachary Taylor, in obedience to orders, _1^^_ 
had taken his j)Ost at the mouth of the Rio I8-16. 
Grande; nor that, on the 11th of the previous 
May, Mr. Polk had announced to Congress, in 
special session, that the blood of our own citi- 
zens had been shed on our own soil ; nor that 
Congress had promptly responded that war 
existed by the act of Mexico, and voted men 
and money accordingly. 

Sloat hesitated what to do. Instructions 
from Secretary Bancroft were then on the way 
to him (dated May 15, 1846), charging him to 
take Mazatlan, Monterey, and San Francisco — 
either or all, as his force would j)ermit ; taking 
them, to hold them at all hazards, encouraging 
the people to self-government and neutrality; 
but of all things, when peace should come again, 
to be sure that the country were found in pos- 
session of the United States. Sloat knew well 
enough that the conquest of California had 
been predetermined at Washington. But, sup- 
pose the war, by some accident, averted, it 
would be an awkward lilunder if, by any act 
of his, the plans of the Administration should 
be revealed to the op23osition, who were charg- 
ing, with great effect, at the Northeast, that the 
President was bent on waging a war of con- 
quest and for the acquisition of territory, in 
12 



178 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOr.lSTLA. 

ciiAP. contravention of the spirit of American institu- 
_^ ■ tions, and in violation of tlie popular wishes. 
184G. Fremont says that Sloat heard of the doings 
at Sonoma, and of what he had done, and the 
news determined hira. Doubtless it hastened 
his determination. But there was another ur- 
gent reason for speed. In the harbor of San 
Bias lay Rear-Admiral Sir George Seymour's 
flag-ship, the Oollingwood, while the Savannah 
was at Mazatlan, and ei2;ht other British naval 
vessels were on the coast, watching every Amer- 
ican movement. It was clear that Euo'land 
suspected the American designs, and counter- 
plotted to make the Californias her own. When 
the Savannah sailed out of Mazatlan, the Col- 
lingwood sailed from San Bias. Both ships 
spread every sail, and raced all the way to 
Monterey. The Savannah was the better sailer 
of the two, and her commander had time to 
hear the news, weigh it well, and deliberately 
choose his course, before the duller craft round- 
ed the Point of Pines. 

Here, at Monterey, he learned how sped the 
project for which Mr. Forbes, the British vice- 
consul, had labored so faithfully, to put Califor- 
nia under British protection, where she would 
lie as an ample security or equivalent for the 
debt due in Mexico to British sul)jects. 

Mr. Forbes, in April, had had an interview 
with Governor Pico and Generals Castro and 



BRITISH PLOTS. 179 

Vallejo, wten tlie scheme was partially dis- chap, 
cussed. It contemplated a fresh declaration of J.^,^ 
the independence of California, and an appeal to 1846. 
Great Britain for protection. A British naval 
force was to be convenient to respond to the 
call. Mexico would be easily appeased, for 
California was but a troublesome province, and 
her enemy, the United States, would thus be 
cheated out of the principal prize that made 
war acceptable to her. Of all this, which was 
concealed from the American people in Califor- 
nia, intimations had reached our Government, 
throiio^h the watchfulness of its consul at Mon- 
terey, Thomas O. Larkin. From him Commo- 
dore Sloat probably learned that part of the 
scheme was to plant a colony of Irishmen in 
the Valley of San Joaquin, and that Macnamara, 
an Irish Catholic priest, had petitioned the 
Mexican Government for large grants of lands 
around the bays of San Francisco and Monterey, 
at Santa Barbara, and along the San Joaquin. 
Tempted by the doulde object of spreading 
their religion and by possession excluding the 
Americans, Mexico readily granted, not all that 
Macnamara asked, but three thousand square 
leagues in the San Joaquin Valley, which was 
enough for his purpose. To be perfected, the 
patent only needed the sigDature of Governor 
Pico. 

Upon information of these British plots, Mr. 



180 THE inSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

Marcy, Secretary of War, had giv^n oral instruc- 
tions, tlirougli Lieutenant Gillespie, to Fremont, 

184G. tliat made liim nothing loth to postpone his 
scientific explorations when Castro blocked his 
way, and turn back, as we have seen, from the 
frontier of Oreo;on, to assist the menaced Ameri- 
can settlers in the Sacramento Valley. George 
Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy, in possession of 
the same facts, had charged the commander of the 
Pacific Squadron not to wait for o'fficial informa- 
tion of the declaration of war, but at the first 
news of it to go in and possess California. 
In view of all these facts, Commodore Sloat, 

July 7. on the 7th of July, sent Captain Mervine and 
two hundred and fifty marines and seamen on 
shore to hoist the American flag over Monte- 
rey. As the stars and stripes were run up, the 
troops and the people cheered, and all the ship- 
ping in the harbor saluted it with a display of 
flags and twenty-one guns, A proclamation was 
then read, of which copies in Spanish and Eng- 
lish were posted about the town. 

This proclamation declared California hence- 
forth a portion of the United States. The civil 
and religious rights of such of its inhal)itants as 
ohose to remain citizens would be respected and 
secured. Those who declined the high privi- 
leges of United States citizenship might remain, 
so long as they preserved a strict neutralit}^ ; or 
they might go, if they chose, after ample time 



THE BEAE PARTY RAISES THE AMEEICAIS" FLAG. 1 81 

had been afforded them to dispose of their pro- chap. 

perty. The titles to real estate, the administra- , 

tion of justice, the property of the clergy, were 1846, 
to remain just as they were found, and no pri- " ^' 
vate property was to be taken for the use of 
the ships or soldiers, without just compensation. 

The day preceding this notable event. Com- 
modore Sloat had dispatched a messenger to 
San Francisco, requesting Commander Mont- 
gomery, of the United States sloop-of-war Ports- 
moiith, to raise the flag, if he had force enough 
to warrant it. On the 8th, Montgomery lauded 
with seventy sailors and marines, took posses- 
sion of Yerba Buena, and hoisted the Union 
standard on the plaza. 

On the 10th, Montgomery sent an American 
flag to Sonoma. The revolutionists received it 
with joy, and, pulling down the bear flag, 
raised it over the garrison. Sloat had ordered 
Purser Fauntleroy to organize into a company 
of dragoons all volunteers from the shipping 
and the shore, for the purpose of keeping the 
roads open from port to port in the vicinity. 
On the 17th this corps left Monterey for the 
San Juan Mission, thirty miles to the eastward. 

Now when Micheltorena had recovered from 
his fright at the premature seizure of Monterey 
by Commodore Jones in 1842, he concealed all 
his spare guns and ammunition at San Juan, 
lest more Yankees should blunder an invasion 



182 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, and find tb em. When, in 1844, Vail ejo, Castro, 
^ ' and Alvarado declared the independence of 
184(). California, first of all they made sure of San 
•^"^^^ Juan. But as they brought their revolution to 
a successful issue without the explosion of 
much gunpowder, their concealed treasure ap- 
pears not to have been disturbed. To secure 
these hidden arms was Purser Fauntleroy's 
errand. He made good time on his excursion, 
and was soon at San Juan, but the treasure 
was claimed by another part}^ An hour before 
his arrival, Fremont and his battalion, riding 
down from Sutter's, had dashed into the mis- 
sion, taken possession without one movement 
of opposition, and dragged to liglit nine pieces 
of cannon, two hundred old muskets, twenty 
kegs of powder, and sixty thousand pounds 
of cannon shot. 
/ Tlie purser had conveyed from Sloat a re- 
quest to Fremont that he would report himself 
So next day l^oth parties marched into Monte- 
rey, and Fremont and Gillesi)ie early presented 
themselves on board the SavminaJi. The com- 
modore was not in the best of humor, for he 
had taken a responsil)ility. He had a misgiving 
that he had been re-enactinof Jones's blunder of 
1842. He had been sixteen days in port ; why 
had not Fremont reported to him at once? 
Fremont had known of his raising the flag six 
days before: why had he not conferred with him 



FEEMOTiTT AISTD SLOAT. 183 

at the earliest possible moment? "I want to chap. 
know," said he, " by what authority you are act- _.__, 
ing. Mr. Gillespie has told me nothing. He i846. 
came to Mazatlau, and I sent him to Monterey ; " ^' 
but I know nothing. I want to know by what 
authority you are acting." 

The answer that he got was not of a nature 
to compose the commodore's spirits. Fremont 
said he was acting on his own authority. " And 
I have acted," said the commodore, " upon the 
faith of your operations in the north. I would 
rather suffer from doing too much than too little." 
And the worthy commodore suffered sadly at 
the moment, suspecting that he had done a good 
deal too much. If he had known the nature 
of a dispatch that would be on the Vv^ay to him 
in less than a month, from Secretary Bancroft — 
a dispatch recalling him because he had not 
aoted long before — he would have felt relieved. 

Fremont might have taken the commodore 
to the quarter-deck and pointed to the Colling' 
vjoodj which arrived but the day before. He 
might have recalled to his attention the fact 
that Great Britain had never befoi'e so large a 
squadron in the Pacific as now; that Macna- 
mara, the priest, had resided at Mexico, in the 
house of a British official, and had been taken 
by the British sloop-of war Juno up to Santa 
Barbara in June ; that the scheme for the Brit- 
ioh occupation of the country was well con- 



184 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, cocted, and about ripe; and tliat America's 
chance would have slipped irrevocably, if some- 
1840. body had not taken the responsibility before 
Admiral Seymour arrived. 

It is doubtful if the argument would have 
comforted the commodore much. It might 
have accounted for the ambitious young cap- 
tain's zeal, but there was a mystery still that 
annoyed him. Tlie captain was a topographi- 
cal engineer, not an army officer, and Gillespie 
1 )ut a lieutenant of marines. Yet the lieutenant 
of marines had been sent past him, at Mazatlan, 
without a message for his eye, to whisper an 
oral message to the young engineer, and all the 
while, he, Sloat, a faithful officer of the navy, 
long in service, commander of the squadron, left 
to take his cue from a younger man ! The 
commodore was sick, disgusted, and fully re- 
solved to return homeward as soon as he could 
be relieved. 

But there was the battalion of one hundred 
and sixty men, panting for the work of crush- 
ing Castro and finisliing the job that had been 
taken in hand. Would the commodore ac- 
cept their services? By no means. He had 
no service for them. He intended to tarry in 
Monterey ; there was no war of his making to 
be prosecuted. 

' On the 15th of July, Commodore Stockton 
arrived at Monterey, in the United States 



STOCKTOiq^'s AEEIVAL. 185 

frigate Congress. He had left Norfolk, Vir- en a p. 
ginia, niDe montlis before, with sealed orders, 
which were to be opened only after passing i840. 
Hatteras. The orders directed him to repair "-^' 
first to the Sandwich Islands, and thence to 
Monterey and deliver dispatches to Consul 
Larkin, and then to report to his superior offi- 
cer, Stockton obeyed his order to the letter. 
Sloat at once expressed his intention to return 
to the East, leaving Stockton in command of 
the squadron. 

Fremont and Gillespie, after Sloat's refusal to 
have any thing to do with their battalion, had 
a conference with Stockton. The New Jersey 
commodore took a different view of thino;s 
from that of his superior officer. He was suf- 
fering no grievance, had not been overlooked by 
the Administration, was young yet, enjoyed a 
good digestion, did not despise the credit nor 
shrink from the perils of being a conqueror. 

He asked, and Sloat granted him permission 
to assume command at once of the land forces. 
Then he invited Fremont and Gillespie to take 
service under him with their battalion. Fre- 
mont was at the head of the popular movement, 
and in a branch of the service that owed no 
duty to a naval officer ; but he was glad to ac- 
cept, and so settle cheaply all questions of the 
irregularity of his late proceedings. Gillespie 
was in the navy, but he was now detailed to a 



186 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

cuAP. special duty by the President. So Lis accept- 
_ _^ ance was entirely voluntary, and it was clieer- 
1846. ful. The battalion was satisfied with any thing 
" ^' that promised work. Thus the reorganization 
I was completed instantly. Stockton commis- 
1 sioned Fremont as major, and Gillespie as cap- 
tain of what thereafter was to be called in tke 
official documents the " California Battalion of 
Mounted RiHemen," but in common parlance, 
the " Navy Battalion." 

On the 23d, Commodore Sloat sailed for 
home in the Levant^ and the same day Stockton, 
now in full command, dispatched the Cycme, 
Commodore Dupont, to convey Major Fremont 
and his battalion to San Diego. A week latei", 
Stockton himself sailed on the Congress for^ 
San Pedro. At Monterey was left the Savan- 
nah, and at San Francisco the Portsmouth. 

Before he left Monterey, Stockton issued a 
proclamation, announcing that he would " im- 
mediately march against the boasting and 
abusive chiefs, ^vho had not only violated every 
principle of national hospitality and good faith 
towards Captain Fremont, but who, unless 
driven out, would keep this beautiful coun- 
try in a constant state of revolution and blood- 
shed, as well as a2:ainst all others who miii'ht 
be found in arms aiding and abetting General 
Castro." 

There was not wanting a certain Mexican 



STOCKTON OCCUPIES IMPORTANT POINTS. 187 

flavor in this, but the commodore proceeded chap 
with great dispatch to caiTy his promises 
into effect, which was a very nn-Mexican pro- i846. 
cednre. ^^' 

The Congress^ on her way down the coast, 
touched at Santa Barbara. Stockton went on 
shore and took possession unhindered; then, 
leaving a small detachment to hold the place, 
he sailed on to San Pedro. Here, on the 6th 
of August, he disembarked, inquired for the 
enemy, and learned that Castro and Pico were 
at Los Angeles, with, as was reported, fifteen 
hundred men. He learned, too, that Fremont 
had safely reached San Diego, but, as he had 
found it exceedingly difficult to obtain horses 
to mount his men, there was little reason to 
hope that the battalion vv'ould traverse the 
hundred and thirty miles between San Diego 
and Los Angeles in time to help capture 
Castro. 

Stockton had six small guns, borrowed jfrom 
the shipping, and they probably of no very 
belligerent antecedents, but now mounted on 
rude carriages for use. Without horses, how- 
ever, of what service would they be ? With 
the little force at his command he could not 
strike a heavy blow, but he determined it should 
be a swift one. His marines and all the sailors 
that could be spared from the ship were landed 
and set to practising the artillery drill. The 



188 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKIS^IA. 

CHAP, tars knew very well tliat, once on shore, tliey 

,_\ might have to find their way back to Monterey 

1846. overland, for the harbor of San Pedro was never 

" "^' to be trusted in case of a storm. The drill was 

all Greek to them, but they were apt scholars, 

and soon were fit to be trusted to march. 

While they were in the camp of instruction, 
there came in commissioners from Castro with 
a flag of truce, proposing that all active opera- 
tions should cease, and each party hold the pos- 
sessions it had until terms of peace could be 
neo:otiated. Stockton dou])ted whether he 
could trust Castro's promises, but did not doubt 
that the commissioners were really spies. So 
he met them with studied sternness, and bade 
them carry back word that no terms would be 
accepted. " Tell Castro he must uncondition- 
ally surrender, or exjDerience my vengeance." 
Meanwhile he occupied the opportunity by 
skilfully parading his men at distant points of 
view, so as to convey the impression that they 
were a mighty multitude. To impress the com- 
missioners with the teiTible nature of the en- 
gines of his warfare, he so arranged a huge 
mortar, enveloping it in skins, except its mouth, 
that they did not doubt that they beheld a 
cannon of more power and greater calibre than 
ever had been displayed on the coast before. 
In a few days other commissioners appeared, to 
assure the commodore that at every sacrifice his 



THE MAECH TO LOS ANGELES. 189 

intentions should be opposed. These were citap. 
sent back with much the same lesson fastened 
in their minds as their predecessors had borne is-ie. 
away. On the 11th of August, five days after "^" 
landing, Stockton took up the line of march 
with his three hundred. Los Angeles was 
reached that night — the cattle, besides which 
they had no other provisions, being driven with 
them in a hollow square, and the six guns 
dragged by hand. Castro's skirmishers were in 
sight much of the time, but they acted simply as 
scouts, who bore to Castro tidings of the pro- 
gress of the invaders. 

As they neared the intrenched camp, a 
courier from Castro came out, kindly to warn 
them that the to^^ n would prove their grave if 
they entered it. Stockton hastened the courier 
back w4th word to the general to have the bells 
tolled at eight in the morning, for at that time 
he slioiild enter. He kept his word, but 
Castro did not wait to superintend any fu- 
neral ceremonies. Breaking up his camp, he 
disbanded his forces and fled to the province 
of Sonora. 

Stockton at once took possession of Los An- 
geles, where he was soon after joined by Fre- 
mont and his battalion. Having received of- 
ficial notice of the existence of the war with 
Mexico, Stockton proclaimed California a terri- 
tory of the United States, organized a territo- 



190 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOTINIA. 

OHAF. rial f^overnment, reserved for himself the dutiea 
^___, of governor, appointed trusty men to certain of 
i84i). ficial stations that could not well be left vacant, 
and invited the jjeople to meet on the 15th of 
September and elect officers of their own. He 
left hfty men, under Captain Gillespie, to gar- 
rison Los Angeles ; others, under Lieutenant 
Talbot, to hold Santa Barbara, and others to 
hold San Diego. With the rest of his force he 
returned to Monterey. Hearing there that 
a thousand Walla- Wallas were threatenino; 
the inhabitants of the Sacramento Valley, he 
sailed for Yerba Buena with the intention of 
engaging this new enemy, but learned upon 
^ arrival that the repoi't was without founda- 

tion. 

The hundred or two inhabitants of Yerba 
Buena and the people of the neighboring coun- 
try gave Governor Stockton a public reception, 
going down in procession to the landing-place 
to meet him. They had music, a ride, a dinner, 
with toasts and speeches, and the festivities 
closed with a ball. In lack of any thing more 
to do, Stockton conceived the j)i'oject, and set 
Fremont to the work of executing it, of em- 
barking a force of volunteers to Mazatlan or 
Acapulco, and thence to cross the country 
and meet General Taylor at the city of Mex- 
ico. 

But there was more work to be done at home 



THE CALIFOlllSTANS EEVOLT. 191 

before the conquest of California was completed, chap. 
Among the persons of rank who surrendered v___ 
as prisoners of war at Los Angeles, and were 184G. 
permitted to go at large on their parole of *^ " 
honor, was General Jose M. Flores. No soon- 
er had Stockton withdrawn from Los Ans^eles 
than Flores began to rally the disbanded troops 
and organize a new opposition. On the 23d of 
September, his troops invested the garrison, 
and Captain Gillespie, seeing nothing else to 
be done, capitulated on the 30th, and retired 
with his riflemen to Monterey. The insurgents 
next besieged the garrison of Santa Barbara. 
Talbot would not surrendei' to the overwhelm- 
ing numbers that presented themselves, but 
safely escaped with all his men. 

Then Flores and his conspirators issued a Oct. 
proclamation to the people. They attributed 
the defeat of the former army to the cowardice 
of the authorities. They called upon the Cali- 
fornians to rally for the expulsion of the 
" North Americans," and to re-establish the De- 
partment of California as a member of the 
great IMexican nation. They declared all Mex- 
ican citizens between the ages of fifteen and 
sixty, who refused to take up arms, traitors, 
incurring the penalty of death. The North 
Americans, who had directly or indirectly aided 
the enemy, v/ere to be removed, and their prop- 
erty confiscated. This proclamation was in- 



192 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOllNIA. 

CHAP, dorsed by more than three hundred persons, 

■^^" all swearing never to lay down arms till tlie 

184G. Americans were expelled from Mexican terri- 

y^'' tory. 



THE CONQUEST EEPEATED. 193 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CALIFORNIA'S THREE CONQUERORS AND FIRST THREE 
AMERICAN GOVERNORS. 

So the American conquest was to be repeated, chap 
Stockton lieard the news from Gillespie, and __ 
sent immediately the Savannah to San Pedro, 1846. 
with three hundred and twenty men, under the 
command of Captain Mervine. The}^ landed, 
attacked a large number of mounted Califor- 
nians some twelve miles from San Pedro, and 
were repulsed, losing five men killed and six 
wounded. Fremont he ordered, with one hun- 
dred and sixty volunteers, to i^roceed to Santa 
Barbara, there to mount his men, and meet the 
commander-in-'chief, who had sailed in the Con- 
gress for S*an Pedro, at Los Angeles. 

Stockton effected his landing on the 23d of 
October, in the face of eight hundred of the 
enemy ; but, on account of the impossibility of 
procuring supplies, re-embarked for San Diego. 
Attempting to enter that harbor, the Congress 
grounded on the bar, and just then the enemy 
attacked the town. Stockton landed all the 

13 



194 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, men that could be spared from the ship, de- 

^__ ", feated the enemy, and saved the town. 

1846. Thon^-h victorious, it was any thins; but a 

°^' pleasant prospect that the commodore found 

there before him. There were no cattle or 

horses, for the enemy had taken the precaution 

to drive them into the interior. He sent out 

messengers to the south to procure some, who, 

after much labor, returned with one hundred 

and forty wretched horses and five hundred 

cattle. Meanwhile he heard from Fremont, 

who, utterly failing to 2:)rocure horses at Santa 

Barbara, had gone up to Monterey to see what 

could be done there. 

Stockton established a camp, built a fort, 
l>ec. set his men to constructing Tuidles, saddles, and 
shoes, and trained them in their tactics. While 
thus busily engaged, on the 3d of December, a 
messenger arrived, announcing that Brigadier- 
General Kearny was approaching from the 
East, and desirous of opening communication 
with him. The same evening' the commander 
sent off Captain Gillespie, with thirty-five 
men, to meet the general. Three days later 
another messenger came, saying that General 
Kearny had been defeated at San Pasqual, with 
the loss of eighteen men killed and as many 
more wounded, and the capture of one of his 
howitzers. He was even then surrounded by the 
enemy, who threatened every hour an attack. 



GENERAL KEARNY IN TROUBLE. 195 

Stockton instantly prepared, bad as was his chap. 
condition for the march, to proceed with all 
his force to aid Kearny ; but a-s still other i846. 
messengers came in, telling a better story of ^'^' 
the general's strength, he contented himself 
with sending Lieutenant Grey and two hundred 
and fifty men to his relie£. 

How Kearny came into this position is 
thus explained : He had left St. Louis under 
orders from the War Department to cross the 
continent to New Mexico and California, and, 
if he should conquer, to establish a civil govern- 
ment over them. New Mexico fell readily be- 
fore his force. As he was about to move on- 
ward thence, he met Kit Carson, with letters 
from Stockton and Fremont, announcing that 
the conquest of California was already achieved. 
So, turning back the greater part of his troops, 
he proceeded with only a small detachment of 
dragoons as a body-guard. 

At the mouth of the Gila, Lieutenant Emory, 
of his party, captured a horseman with the Cali- 
fornia mail for Sonora. From letters that it 
bore, he read that the south had risen on the 
conquerors, and retaken the lower country. 
Kearny gave little credence to the tale, though 
it Avas true enough. Still, when near San Pas- 
qual, thirty-six miles from San Diego, he thought 
it prudent, in his wearied, travel-worn state, to 
halt until he could hear from Stockton. Mi\ 



196 THE HISTORY OF OALIFOENIA. 

CHAP. Stokes, the Ens-lisliman wlio owned the rancho 

XVI 

where he halted, conveyed to San Diego the 
I8i6. mes-sage that brought Lieutenant Gillespie, on 
®^' the 5th, to Kearny's camp. 

Before the dawn of the next day, Keaniy 
and Gillespie moved forward ; hut the Califor- 
nians were up equally early, and gave them a 
w^arm reception. The Americans maintained 
their position ; but in the conflict they lost 
eighteen killed and thirteen wounded, and, 
among the latter, both Kearny and Gillespie. 
They buried their dead that night, and next 
morning again took up their march. Encum- 
bered as they were with their wounded, they 
charged upon the Californians, who came out to 
dispute their way, and drove them from the 
field. On the following morning, December 
8th, the Americans found the desolate hill of 
San Fernando, which they occupied, besieged 
on all sides. They were out of supplies, sick, 
wounded, foot-sore. Fortunately, they obtained 
water on digging for it, and so were not utter- 
ly hopeless. They must have perished but for 
the heroism of Kit Carson, whom Kearny had 
turned back from the errand with which Stock- 
ton and Fremont had sent him eastward, and 
reserved for his guide through the desert. 
Carson, Lieutenant Beale, and an Indian volun- 
teered to pierce the circle of the enemy, and 
convjey intelligence to Stockton of their perilous 



MAECH FROM SAN DIEGO TO LOS ANGELES. 197 

situation. The desperate attempt succeeded, chap. 



XVI. 



and on the night of the 10th, Lieutenant Grey 
and his dragoons came dashing up to Sau Fer- I84e. 
nando, at the sound of whose advance the be- 
sieging force fled, and troubled them no more. 

Two days later, Kearny's party were in San 
Diego. The commodore received the general 
graciously, and tendered him the chief command. 
This Kearny politely declined, though he ex- 
pressed his desire to command under Stockton, 
which, of course, was permitted him. On the 
29th of December the march was commenced 
throuoh the sands and over the ruarsfed moun- 
tains that make up the hundred and thirty 
miles of distance between San Die^'o and Los 
Angeles ; and about the same time commenced 
the quarrel between Kearny and Stockton, 
which was removed afterwards to Washington, 
was thoroughly ventilated on the court-martial 
of Fremont, and for a long time arrayed against 
each other the friends of these distins^uished 
citizens. The disagreement tinges all their after 
proceedings on the Pacific coast, but led to no 
serious collision until the reconquest was com- 
pleted. 

The advancing forces consisted of Cai^tain 
TUghman's company of artillery, a detachment 
of the first regiment of dragoons, Companies A 
and B of the California battalion of mounted 
riflemen, and a detachment of sailors and ma- 



198 THE H.3T0EY OF (JALIFOENIA. 

31IAP. rines from the frigates Congress and Savannah 
_ ■ and tlie ship Portsmouth. The horses were in 
184G. such "wretched condition, tliat Captain Turner, 
^^' of the dragoons, preferred to go without them. 
The men wore canvas shoes of their own manu- 
facture, and were otherwise but miserably 
equipped. It was in the midst of the rainy 
season, and whenever the line of march led 
them out of the sand, it took them into mud 
ankle deep. The draught-horses gave out so 
fast that half the vvork of dragging the guns, 
ammunition, and provision wagons devolved 
upon the men. Kit Carson and a corps of 
scouts kept ahead of the main body, engaging 
in frequent skirmishes. 
1847. From San Luis Key, Stockton sent a messen- 
■jau. ggj. ^Q announce to Fremont his advance, and 
to caution him ao;ainst risking: an action l^efore 
their forces could be joined. This messenger 
was dispatched on the 3d of January, but he 
did not reach Fremont until the 9tl]. Several 
times I'unners came from Flores, proposing com- 
promises; but they were all rejected, and word 
sent back that if he, or any one else, who, like 
him, had broken his parole, should be caught, 
he would sui'ely be shot. 

On the 7th of January it was discovered that 
the enemy, a])parently a thousand or twelve 
hundred in number, and mostly cavalry, were 
drawn up on the bank of the river San Gabriel, 



MARCH FROM SAN DIEGO TO LOS AXGELES. 199 

in position to command the ford. Next morn- chap. 
ing, Stockton advanced, and, when within a quar- 
ter of a mile of the river, formed his men into 
line, and gave orders not to lire a gun until all 
had crossed. The order was obeyed, though 
the enemy did not intermit tlieir brisk but in- 
effectual discharges. As they were crossing, 
Kearny sent word to Stockton that the bed of 
the river, in which there was about four feet 
of water, consisted of quicksands, and that the 
guns could not be safely transported. " Quick- 
sands or no quicksands," said Stockton, " the 
guns shall pass over," and hurried to the head 
of his column, took his place at the ropes, and 
himself assisted to drag the guns across. All 
over, the line of battle was ao-ain formed. 
Kearny charged up the baidv, while Stockton 
gave his attention to repelling an assault upon 
his iianli, with which the enemy, descending 
to the l)ank of the river, had visited him. The 
assault was repelled, and, the enemy retreating, 
Stockton with his artillery pushed up the de- 
clivity after them. Arrived on the heights, he 
found the enemy drawn up in battle array, with 
their artillery in front, but his well-aimed fire 
soon scattered them. A portion of their right 
wing came upon the rear of the Americans, who 
were guarding the baggage and cattle, but Cap- 
tain Grillespie handsomely repulsed them, and 
drove them across the river. The main body 



200 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA 

CHAP, fled towards Los Angeles, stopping occasionally 
_^__, to renew the defence, but ahvays without suc- 
1847. cess. 

^"" The next day, Stockton came upon them again, 
well posted on the plains. Here the Califor- 
niums redeemed their reputation for valor. 
They charged gallantly uptm Stockton's army, 
but were met with a disastrous fire. The 
second attack was made upon three sides of 
the square at once, yet it met with the same 
result. The third time they returned to the 
charge, and a third time were repulsed with 
loss, after which they fled in confusion. 

On the 10th of January, Stockton marched 
into Los Angeles, and raised again the very flag 
that Gillespie had been compelled through the 
treachery of Flores to strike some three months 
before. 

Meanwhile, Fremont from Monterey, where 
he ^vas trying to get horses for his battalion, 
had sent news to Sutter's Fort of the disasters 
at the south, and begged for re-enforcements 
from among the settlers. Edwin Bryant and 
some friends scoured the country for volunteers, 
1846. and not without success. On the 29th of No- 
^^' vember, these recruits from the north joined 
Fremont near San Juan Bautista, where he had 
gone in pursuit of a party of Californians 
which had taken Consul Larkin prisoner, 



Nov. 



Fremont's battaliois" on the march. 201 
tbouQ-h before his arrival tlie consul liad been chap. 

J XVI. 

rescued. *— ^-^ 

y Fremont's battalion now numbered, includ- i846. 
ing Indians and servants, four hundred and 
twenty-eight. Excepting his original explor- 
ing party, they consisted of volunteers from the 
American settlements, and newly arrived emi- 
grants, who were expert with the rifle, a few 
Walla- Wallas from Oregon, and some native 
Californians. Each man had in his leathern 
girdle a hunter's and a bowie knife. Each 
carried a rifle, holster pistols, and sometimes 
a brace of pocket pistols besides. The best 
equipped wore trousers and moccasous of buck- j 
skin, and broad-brimmed hats ; the worst-sup- 
plied made blue flannel answer in place of 
buckskin. 

The battalion was oro-anized into eig-ht com- 
panies of cavalry, and one of artillery which 
Louis McLane commanded. They drove five 
or six hundred mules with them, besides pack- 
mules loaded with baggage and provisions. 
They beo;an their march southward on the 30th 
of November, but halted the next two days 
. while a party returned to the mission and 
brought back a hundred head of cattle, which 
the troops drove before them, confining them 
in a movable corral at night, and slaughtering 
from the herd as they were needed. 

The rainy season had rendered the travelling 



202 THE HISTOEY OF CALirOE]S"lA. 

CHAP, exceedingly bad, and the ground was so washed 
by the rains that it furnished little fodder for 
the cattle. The half-starved horses frequently 
gave out on the march, and they seldom made 
more than fifteen miles a day. Their cattle 
corral was soon empty ; but happily they found 
sheep ill plenty at the Missions of ISan Miguel 
and San Luis Obispo, whose fine cactus-hedged 
enclosures lay on their route. 

They captured a few prisoners as they pro- 
ceeded. Among: these was Jesus Pico, a dis- 
tinguished citizen, who had been released by 
Stockton on his parole, and had afterwards vio- 
lated the terms of his release. For this offence 
he was tried by a court-martial and sentenced 
to be shot. The women came in p)Tocession at 
San Luis to intercede for his pardon, and not 
in vain. Colonel Fremont, with impressive 
deliberation, granted the pardon, and thereby, 
as he said on his own court-martial, won tlie 
hearts of the people. 

On Christmas Day the battalion was drag- 
ging its weary way up the difficult pass of the 
St. Ynez Mountain. The wind was a gale, 
and the rain poured down. Descending the 
southern slope of the mountain, many horses 
fell into the ravines and were swept away by 
the flood. Others tumbled over the precipices 
and were killed. It was late at night before 
the drenched and wretched party straggled 



Jan. 



FREMOISTT PARDOISrS JESUS TICO. 203 

clown to tlie foot of the mountain, and en- chap. 
camped on ground so saturated that all efforts ^..__, 
to kindle a fire were useless. ISText day the i846. 
castaway baggage was brought down, and ^^' 
some of the stray animals ; but there were not 
horses enough to left mount the men. 

They entered Santa Barbara on the 27th, 
and remained there in camp for a week. They 
resumed the march on the 5th of January, i847. 
1847, and next day effected, without seeing an 
enemy, the naiTOAV pass of the Rincon, where 
they confidently expected that the way would 
be disputed, as it might have been b}^ a very 
small force. On the 6th, when some seven 
miles from the Mission of Bueua Ventura, they 
saw sixty or seventy mounted Californians 
drawn up in order, but they disappeared as the 
battalion advanced. A little later the courier 
from Stockton met them, announcing that the 
commodore and Kearny were on the way 
from St. Diego to Los Angeles. On the 11th, 
approaching San Fernando, they met Califor- 
nians, who told them that Stockton and Kear- 
ny v/ere in Los Angeles. 

Here too suddenly swarmed about them the 
enemy, apj)arently in strong force. Fremont 
sent them a summons to surrender. Though 
they would not obey that order, they did not 
se'^m indisposed to parley. So the colonel and 
Don Jesus Pico, his pardoned captive, and now 



204 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOEXIA. 

CHAP, fast friend, went out to meet their chiefs. Fre- 
mont did not know that Stockton had previ- 
ously and repeatedly refused all terms to these 
same men. They professed to admire Fremont's 
clemency towards Pico, and flattered him by 
assurances that to him and him alone they 
would capitulate. Commissioners were speed- 
ily appointed from each side to negotiate, and 
the result of their labors was the Treaty of 
Couenga. By its articles the Californians 
agreed to surrender their artillery and puldic 
arms, to return to their homes, and assist in 
maintaining the public peace. The Americans 
agreed to protect the life and property of all 
Califoruian or Mexican officers and privates, 
whether they took up arms while on parole or 
otherwise. Equal rights were guaranteed citi- 
zens of California and of the United States. All 
paroles were cancelled, and their conditions an- 
nulled, and all prisoners of both parties released. 
The oath of allegiance was not to be required 
of any Mexican or Californian until a treaty of 
peace between Mexico and the United States 
was signed, and if any such Mexican or Cali- 
fornian desired to leave the country, he could 
do so without let or hindrance. Tiie treaty, 
si2;ned by Major P. B. Reading, Captain Louis 
McLane, and Colonel Wm. H. Russell for the 
Americans ; and by Jose Antonio Carrillo and 
Augustiu Olivera for the Californians, was ap- 




THE TREATY OF COUENGA. 205 

proved, January 16tb, by Fremont, as "Mili- 
tary Commandant of California," and by 
Andres Pico, " Commandant of Squadron and 
Chief of the National Forces of California." It 
was instantly proclaimed, as needing no further 
ratification, and the war was ended. 

The Treaty of Couenga brought peace to the 
contending armies and the people, but trouble 
enough to the three chief agents in the conquest 
of the country. Fortunately, Flores, when his 
forces dissolved before Stockton, fled to Sonora. 
If he had remained it is doubtful if the com- 
modore would liave assented to the terms of 
the treaty. It was very natural that he should 
prefer to make his own stipulations with an 
enemy whom he had defeated. Still there the 
treaty was, signed, proclaimed, and under its 
grateful shade the late Ijelligerents ^vere at 
peace. Kearny urged its recognition, and 
Stockton was too shrewd to object. In fact, 
neither could afford just at that time to quarrel 
with the man who made it. 

Fremont perceived the gravity of the next ^ 
matter that claimed his attention, and moved 
deliberately. Halting still at the Couenga 
rancho, he sent Colonel Russell to Los Angeles 
to discover who was chief in command there, 
and to report to him. Kearny was his supe- ^ 
rior officer in the army, to a department of 
which he belonged. But to Stockton he was 



206 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, owino- the authority under wlilcli he had raised 

XVI • • • 

, _^ his battalion and written " Military Comman- 

1847. dant " after his name. It was ^a delicate mat- 
^^' ter for him to decide, and he proposed to leave 
it for their decision. 

The messenger, returning, reported that 
Stockton was acting as chief, but that Kearny 
claimed for himself superiority. -Both command- 
ers were exceedingly complacent towards him, 
both tendered desirable positions, but Stockton*'s 
bid was rather the most tempting. Stockton 
had previously arranged to leave the country 
soon, and he had transmitted to Washington 
his intention to make Fremont governor on 
leaving. Kearny held that he was endowed 
with the functions of governor by his orders 
from Washington; but, if Fremont should re- 
port to him, he proposed to make him his suc- 
cessor at some future day. 

Fremont knew that Kearny was authorized 
■ to establish a civil government in California, 
provided he should conquer it, as he had done 
in New Mexico. But Stockton and Fremont 
insisted that the conquest was accomplished be- 
fore he crossed the plains. Or if the conquest 
( was not complete, as these later troubles showed, | 
it was with a bad grace that he set up to be 
its conqueror, who was shut up at San Pasqual, 
and mio:ht have starved there but for the relief 
that Stockton sent him. 



FEE5I0NT AS GOVEENOR. 207 

To Stockton, then, Fremont reported, when ctiap. 
on the 14:th. he entered Los Angeles, and by 
that act, as it gave him the command of the 
four hundred effective troops of the battalion, 
the commodore won the field from the general. 
A military tribunal has since reversed the de- 
cision, and held Fremont to blame for his choice. 

Two days later, Fremont received from Stock- 
ton his commission as governor. Kearny still 
kindly remonstrated ; but when he found his 
dissuasion quite in vain, he determined to arrest 
and punish the offender. For a little season the 
general's wrath was quite impotent. But, re- 
pairing to San Diego, he found that the Mor- 
mon battalion, part of the re-enforcements for 
Kearny's " Army of the West," which Stirling 
Price had brought to Santa Fe, had arrived, 
under Colonel St. George Cooke. Cooke re- 
ported to Kearny, who thence proceeded by 
sea to Monterey. 

Scarcely was Kearny gone from Los An- 
geles, when Stockton also departed. At San 
Pedro he re-embarked his marines, and sailed 
for the Mexican coast. 

So Fremont was left alone as governor. He 
resided in the mansion where several California 
governors before him had lived. His battalion 
he sent to San Gabriel for quarters. He en- 
joyed the friendship of the first families of the 
land. He vv^as honored for his position, his 



208 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

otiAP. achievements, Lis gentlemanly bearing. He 

was at peace with all men, and throughout 

1847. the length and breadtii of the land order pre- 

March. yjji]g(-|^ j^ lasted some seven weeks, and then 

a storm ! 

At Monterey Kearny found Commodore 
Shubrick in the Independence^ and the two, per- 
haps disgusted that so young a man as Fre- 
mont should be leading so merry a life, while 
his elders were neither governors nor popularly 
regarded as conquerors, harmonized in a course 
that plucked the roses from his path, and 
strewed it with thorns. First, they sent him 
the copy of a proclamation, dated March 1st, 
1847, signed jointly l)y the two, declaring that 
President Polk had assigned to the naval com- 
mander — that was Shubrick — the regulating of 
port charges ; and to the military commander — 
that was Kearny — the functions of governor. 
Second, there came to him a proclamation, bear- 
ing the same date, signed by Kearny alone, 
telling the old story of his authority, and how 
he came by it, announcing the entire annexa- 
tion of California to the United States, absolv- 
ino; all Californians from allegiance to Mexico, 
and continuing the Mexican laws in operation, 
and the existing civil officers in their offices, 
provided they would s\vear to support the Con- 
stitution of the United States. 

It was not Fremont alone who was startled 



March 



THE TEEATY OF COUENGA IGNOEED. 209 

by this unlieralded proclamation. It abroo-a- chap 

. XVI 

ted the Treaty of Couenga, without so miicli w.,^_„ 
as naming it. Californians found their citizen- 1847. 
ship transferred without the courtesy of a ques- 
tion asked. The man whom they had accepted 
at the hands of the American authorities, as 
their governor, after valiantly declining him, 
and being honorably compelled to succumb, 
and with whom now they were well pleased, 
was utterly ignored. With him went the terms 
of their capitulation. What next would the 
Americans do ? Perhaps annex them to the 
Chinese Empire ! perhaps proclaim them an in- 
tegral part of the Cannibal Islands ! The whole 
procedure seemed to them a gratuitous insult, 
and an incomprehensible piece of insolence, that 
a word from Fremont would have tempted 
them to I'epudiate. 

But Fremont, though mortified beyond meas- 
ure, was reasonably prudent. On the 11th of 
March he received orders through Kearny, 
which discovered to him that the Administration 
at Washino;ton would side ag^ainst Stockton and 
himself. These orders required him to muster 
the California battalion into the regular service, 
or, if they were unwilling to be so disposed of, 
to conduct them to San Francisco and dischars-e 
them. Moreover, he was assured that Colonel 
Cooke was made commandant of the southern 
district, ^vith his Mormon battalion to back his 
14 



210 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOT^NIA. 

CHAP, authority. Here was a pretty position for a 
governor in oi:ood and re2;ular standins; ! 

1847. Fremont was military man enough to know 
^'^ *■ how to obey, though every item of these orders 
was a cruel stab at his authority, his prido, his 
I self-respect. His battalion, moreover, claimed to 
have a will of its own. Officers and men re- 
fused to be mustered. They would be dis- 
' banded if there were no help for it, but they 
would like their pay for past services before 
even that were done. 

Fremont ordered the officers to keep things 
as they were until his return, and then, with 
Jesus Pico and a solitary servant, mounted for 
a ride to Monterey. In three days and a half 
he had put some four hundred miles between 
him and Los Angeles. He called on General 
Kearny, but was refused ])ermission to see 
him, except in the presence of Colonel Mast)n, 
who had arrived with instructions to relieve 
General Kearny, and allow Colonel Fremont 
to join his regiment or to pursue his intermitted 
explorations, as he chose. Fremont's errand 
was to consult with Kearny as to the payment 
of the Ijattalion, but Kearny was in no con- 
sulting; mood. He demanded to know if Fre- 
mont would obey him. Fremont answered 
that he would. "Then send those of the bat- 
talion, who refuse to be mustered, to Monterey, 
and come yourself by land " said his chief. 



FREMONT DISOBEYS OEDERS. 211 

Swiftly as he had come, Fi-emont returned to chap. 
Los Angeles to learn that Colonel Cooke had 
been there in his absence, to demand the ord- 1347. 
nance of the battalion, which, according to their P" 
orders, the officers had refused to surrender. 
Close on his heels came Colonel, alias Governor 
Mason, ordering Governor Fremont to embark 
his men for Monterey, and himself appear there 
twelve days afterwards. 

Fremont proposed to mount his original party, 
with the intention of joining the regiment, of 
which he was a lieutenant-colonel, in Mexico. 
But the twelve days, the whole month of April 
passed, and he still lingered. 

Kearny meanwhile had received new acces- 
sions to his forces. Colonel Jonathan D. Ste- 
venson's New York Reo-iraent of Volunteers 
arrived by way of Cape Horn, in four transport 
ships, the Thomas H. Perhins, Loo-OJioo^ Sasan 
Drew^ and Brutus. The three first named left 
New York September 26th, 1846 ; the Brutus 
left later. The first to arrive was the Perhins^ 
March 6 th, 1847. 

This regiment was composed of men selected 
with reference to their willingness to tarry in 
the country, if they found it what they ex- 
pected ; artisans of all sorts, men versed in the 
arts of peace, but bearing arms, and retaining 
their military organization till the close of the 
war. Except two companies, which were sent 



212 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, to La Paz to take possession of Lower Callfor- 

XVI • ... 

ma, the regiment was distributed througliout 
California to garrison its chief points. They 
did good service as soldiers, and afterwards as 
civilians reflected no discredit on their origin. 

Early in May, Kearny went to Los Angeles, 
to hasten the proceedings of his tardy suhordi- 
^nate. He refused Fremont pemiissiou to join 
iiis regiment, sold the horses he had collected, 
and ordered him instantly to repair to Monterey, 
There he compelled him to turn over his ex- 
ploring instruments to another party. When at 
•Time 19 last Kearny was ready to go East^ Fremont was 
obliged to keep him company, with orders to 
encamp at night in the rear of the Mormon 
guard, and never more than a mile away from 
the general ; at Fort Leavenworth he was ar- 
rested; at Fortress Monroe, a court-martial 
found him guilty of mutiny, disobedience, and 
disorderly conduct, and sentenced him to forfeit 
his commission. 

On this trial Fremont behaved with spirit, 
and pleaded his cause with an eloquence that 
made the people of the States reverse the deci- 
sion so soon as they read the proceedings. The 
court recommended him to the clemency of the 
President, on the grounds of his past services, 
and the peculiar position in which he was 
placed when the alleged disobedience took 
place. Mr. Polk was not sure that the nnitiny 



FREMONT GOES HOME UISTDEK ARREST. 213 

was proven, thongli tlie otlier charges were, and chap. 

they were enougli to warrant the sentence. So ^^ ^ 

he approved the court's decision, discharged i84T. 
the culprit from arrest, and directed him to 
report for duty. Fremont spurned the mercy 
of the President, and retired from the army. 
The people — to them these cases go for final 
adjudication — pronounced it superlatively mean 
to visit the consequences of an irrepressible 
conflict between two senior officers upon a 
junior, who could not possibly side with both 
parties, and had the manliness to take the re- 
sponsibility of reporting to the one he thought 
best entitled to his services. They saw merits 
in their hero that probably never would have 
struck them if he had not been shamefully mal- 
treated. If he had been left quietly in Califor- 
nia, until superseded in a regular way, probably 
Stockton would have been re2:arded as the fore- 
most man in the conquest. But when spite 
dogged Fremont home, and jealousy attem23ted 
to crush him, the people pronounced him the 
genuine " conqueror of California," and only 
narrowly missed, a few years later, making him 
President of the United States. 



:214 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 



CHAPTEK XVn. 

SAN- FRANCISCO AMERICANIZED. 

OHAP. Calitornia IS to be conOTatulated on its nar- 

XVII. 

___^ row escape from a Mormon element m its popu- 
1S47. lation, at a time when every ship-load of people 
told with great power upon the shaping character 
of the State. A company of Mormons, from New 
York, under the leadership of Samuel Brannan, 
arrived at Yerba Buena on the 31st of July, 1846, 
pitched their tents at the foot of the sand-hills, 
and fortunately fell soon to ci[uarrelling. Their 
dissensions ran so high that many of their lead- 
ers seceded. Then followed a lawsuit and a 
jury-trial (the first in the Territoiy), of which 
Brannan, who had been much reviled for alleired 
misdeeds in the office of president of the asso- 
ciation, was the winner. These proceedings 
prevented the settlement of the Mormons as a 
community in the neighborhood. The ties that 
bound them too-ether were broken. Some of 
them joined Fremont's battalion ; some of 
them went into trade. Afterwards, most who 
retained their Mormon faith were seduced over 
the Sierras by the news of gold discoveries 



THE TO WIS" OF YERBA BUE]S"A. 215 

about the Salt Lake, and so California escaped chap. 
tlie curse of Mormonism. ^ 

This little town of Yerba Buena, as people i847. 
persisted in calling it untilJanuarj^,1847,liad,by *°' 
that time, grown to be a post of three hundred 
inhabitants and about fifty adobe houses, and was 
indulging in a weekly newspaper, the Calif oimia 
Star, published by Mr. Brannan, and edited by 
Dr. E. P. Jones. Three months later it had a 
second j^aper, Messrs. Colton and Semple's CaU- 
fornian, which was the pioneer in the country 
(having started at Monterey, Angust 15, 1846), 
being transferred to the more thrifty settlement. 

That change of name, from Yerha Buena 
(good herb), which was balmy and unhack- 
neyed and unique, to 8an Francisco, which 
was common and significant of nothing peculiar, 
was the fruit of an ordinance promulgated by 
its first alcalde ; and one of its eifects was to 
compel Mr. Larkin and Mr. Semple, who had 
laid out a city on the Straits of Carquinez, in 
expectation that it would eventually prove the 
chief city about the bay, to change its name 
from Frcmcisca to Benicia, in honor of Genial 
Vallejo's wife. 

An alcalde had a perfect right to change the 
name, or, indeed, to do almost any thing else that 
he could persuade the people to approve. He 
could make grants of building lots to intend- 
ing settlers, with very uncertain restrictions, 



210 THE UISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, order affairs to suit himself, and administer jus- 
tice according to liis own notions of equity. He 

1847. was tlie chief magistrate under the Mexican 
'^'^'^' laws, and as yet the country enjoyed no other 

than Mexican laws. The first alcalde of San 
Francisco was AVashington A. Bartlett, who 
did not long hold the office, being soon needed 
on board the naval vessel to which he was 
attached as lieutenant. Durini!: his administra- 
tion he had Jasper O'FaiTell survey and plan 
the city. Bartlett's temporary successor as 
alcalde was G-eorge Hyde, who, to judge from 
the court records of later times, must have been 
constantly occupied in making grants to appli. 
Feb.22. cants. After him came Edwin Bryant, ap- 
pointed by General Kearny. Bryant had 
crossed the Plains the year before, and ma- 
terially aided Fremont in raising his battalion 
for the conquest. He continued briefly in 
office, returning in June, with Kearny's party, 
to the States, and j)ublishing a valuable book 
of his travels, entitled What I sav) in Cali- 
fornia. The succeeding alcaldes were George 

1848. Hyde (again), Di-. J. Townsend, Dr, T, M. 
Leavenworth, and Colonel J, W, Geary, who, 
as he was the last alcalde, was his own succes- 
sor and the first mayor under the Americanized 
city charter. 

It was during Hyde's second term that, be- 
cause the town business grew so heavy, an 



SUFFERING OF THE EMIGEANTS. 217 

ayuntamlento or town council was establislied, chap. 
to aid in conducting it, and, once established, it .l^.^ 
continued until the boards of aldermen and i846- 
assistant aldermen took its place. ^ 

The San Franciscans were chiefly Americans, 
and they began, before 1847 was ended, to do 
as all Americans do — to talk j)olitics, to cele- 
brate Fourth of July, observe Thanksgiving, 
have a steamboat on the bay, and take measures 
for establishing a public school. They were 
fond of public meetings and of uttering their 
sentiments in the form of resolutions. One of 
the earliest occasions for such a meetino- durins: 
the year was notable for its object, and most 
creditable for its spirit and results. We con- 
dense the story from the narrative of Mr. Bry- 
ant in his book before alluded to. 

Of the overland emigration to California in 
1846, about eighty wagons took a new route, 
from Fort Bridger around the south end of 
Great Salt Lake. The pioneers of the party 
arrived in good season over the mountains ; but 
Mr. Reed's and Mr. Donner's companies opened 
a new route through the desert, lost a month's 
time by their explorations, and reached the foot 
of the Truckee Pass, in the Sierra Nevada, on 
the 31st of October, instead of the 1st, as they 
had intended. The snow began to fall on the 
mountains two or three weeks earlier than usual 
that year, and was already so piled up in the 



218 THE IIISTOllY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. Pass that tliey could not proceed. Tbey at- 

_^^_, tempted it repeatedly, but were as often forced 

184G- to return. One party built their cabins near 

184^ • • 

Truckee Lake, killed their cattle, and went into 
winter-quarters. The other (Donner's) party 
still l)elieved that they could thread the pass, 
and so failed to l)uild their cabins before more 
snow came and buried their cattle alive. Of 
course these were soon utterly destitute of food, 
for they could not tell where their cattle were 
buried, and there was no hope of game on a 
desert so piled with snow that nothing without 
win2;s could move. The number of those who 
were thus storm-stayed, at the very threshold 
of tlie land whose winters are one long spring, 
was eighty, of whom thirty were females, and 
several children. The Mr. Donner who had 
charge of one company was an Tllinoisian, sixty 
years of age, a man of high respectability and 
abundant means. His wife was a woman of 
education and refinement, and much younger 
than he. 

During November it snowed thirteen days; 
during December and January, eight days in 
each. Much of the time the tops of the cabins 
were below the snow level. 

It was six weeks after the halt was made 
that a party of fifteen, including five women 
and two Indians who acted as guides, set out 
on snow-shoes to cross the mountains, and scive 



gi 



SUFFEKING OF THE OVEnLAT^D EMIGRANTS. 219 

notice to tlie people of the California settli- chap. 

ments of the condition of their friends. At 

first the snow was so lio'ht and feathery that 184G- 

1847 

even in snow-shoes they sank nearly a foot at 
every step. On the second day they crossed 
the " divide," findinsr the snow at the summit 
twelve feet deep. Pushing forward with the 
courage of despair, they made from four to 
eight miles a day. 

Within a week they got entirely out of pro- 
visions, and three of them, succumbing to cold, 
weariness, and starvation, had died. Then a 
heavy snow-storm came on, which compelled 
them to lie still, buried between their blankets 



under the snow, for thirty-six hours. By the 
evening of the tenth day three more had died, 
and the living had been four days without food. 
The horrid alternative was accepted — ^they took 
the flesh from the bones of their dead, remained ^847. 
in camp two days to dry it, and then pushed on. 
On New Year's, the sixteenth day since leav- 
ing Truckee Lake, they were toiling up a steep 
mountain. Their feet were frozen. Every step 
was marked with blood. On the second of 
January their food again gave ouf. On the 
third, they had nothing to eat but the strings 
of their snow-shoes. On the fourth, the Indians 
eloped, justly suspicious that they might be 
sacrificed for food. On the fifth, they shot a 
deer, and that day one of their number died. 



220 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, ^oon ttree others died, and every death now 
^_^^^ eked out the existence of the survivors. On 
1847. the seventeenth all gave out, and concluded 
their wanderings useless, except one. He, 
guided by two stray, friendly Indians, dragged 
himself on till he reached a settlement on Bear 
River. By midnight the settlers had found 
and were treating with all Christian kindness 
what remained of the little company that, after 
more than a month of the most terrible suifer- 
ings, had that morning halted to die. 

The story that there were emigrants perish- 
ing on the other side of the snowy 1)arrier ran 
swiftly down the Saci'amento Valley to New 
Helv^etia, and Captain Satter, at his own ex- 
pense, fitted out an expedition of men and of 
mules laden with provisions, to cross the moun- 
tains and relieve them. It ran on to San Fran- 
cisco, and the people, rallying in public meeting, 
raised fifteen hundred dollars, and with it fitted 
out another expedition. The naval commandant 
of th',^ port fitted out still others. 

The first of the relief parties reached Truckee 
Lake' on the 19th of February, Ten of the 
people in *the nearest camp were dead. For 
four weeks those who were still alive had fed 
only on bullocks' hides. At Donner's camp they 
had but one hide remainin<2:. The visitors left a 
small supply of provisions with the twenty-nine 
whom they could not take with them, and started 



SUFFERING OF THE OVERLAND EMIGRANTS. 22 1 

back witli the remainder. Four of tlie children chap. 
they carried on their backs. , ^_, 

Another of the relief parties reached Truckee 1847. 
Lake on the 1st of March. They immediately 
started back with seventeen of the sufferers, but, 
a heavy snow-storm overtaking them, they left 
all, except three of the children, on the road. 
Another party went after those who were left 
on the way, found three of them dead, and the 
rest sustaining life by feeding on the flesh of 
the dead. 

The last relief party reached Donner's camp 
late in April, when the snows had melted so 
much that the earth appeared in spots. The 
main cabin was empty, but some miles distant 
they found the last survivor of all, lying on the 
cabin-floor smoking his pipe. He was ferocious 
in aspect, savage and repulsive in manner. His 
camp-kettle was over the fire, and in it his meal 
of human flesh preparing. The stripped bones 
of his fellow-sufferers lay around him. He re- 
fused to return with the party, and only con- 
sented when he saw that there was no escape^ 

Mrs. Donner was the last to die. Her hus- 
band's body, carefully laid out and wrapped in 
a sheet, was found at his tent. Circumstances 
led to the suspicion that the survivor had killed 
Mrs. Donner for her flesh and her money, and 
when he was threatened with hanging, and the 
rope tightened around his neck, he produced 



222 THE IIISTOllT OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, over five hundred dollars in ^old, whicli proba- 
^_^ bly he had appropriated from her store. 
1847. When General Kearny returned to the East, 
in June, 1847, he halted at the scene of thcvse 
terrible sufferings. By his orders the mum- 
mied remains of the dead were buried, and all 
the relics of the cabins gathered and burned. 
Of the eighty who were thus arrested at the 
eastern foot of the Truckee Pass, forty -four 
were saved, of \vhora twenty-two were females. 
Thirty-six perished. 

Another subject which a public meeting was 
called in San Francisco to consider was the de- 
throned idol of the populace, Fremont. That 
distinguished ex-governor left a joeople behind 
him divided as to his merits. It was presumed 
that California would soon be ei'ected by Con- 
gress into a territory of the United States, and 
a petition was in circulation asking tlie Presi- 
dent to appoint Fremont as its governor. This 
petition had been numerously signed at the 
South, for there he was popular. Hk treat}^ 
of Couenga, the easy terms he had allowed to 
those who broke their parole, all his intercourse 
with the first families of the country, made him 
a favorite. 

But when the petition came North it was the 
signal for an angry controversy. Fremont's 
most bitter enemies were his lately devoted sol- 
diers, the disbanded battalion of mounted 



USTDIGISTAISTT AT FEEMONT. 223 

liilemen, and tliose wLom lie had favored with chap. 
contracts. He was in arrears to the latter for _^_^ 
his £irmy outiit and supplies, and to the volun- 1847. 
teers for their pay. Personally, he had no 
funds to draw upon. Kearny would not 
strain a point to relieve the embarrassment of 
one who had denied his authority, nor would 
Mason either employ the ample resources of 
the country to pay debts contracted before 
his day, or without the previous sanction of 
Congress grant-warrants upon the Treasury. 
Kearny's repudiation of him, and Mason's re- 
fusal to recognize the authority of " the Path- 
finder," led the malcontents to feel that he was 
not simply a penniless debtor, but a swindler 
as well. So they called a public meeting — 
there is no surer sign that they were thoroughly 
AmeFicanized — and expressed their indignation. 
The meeting appointed a committee to investi- 
gate and publish all reliable instances of his 
misconduct, and by resolution protested against 
his appointment as governor. 

Meanwhile the subject of all this indignation, 
dispirited and unhappy, was about a month on 
his way across the plains, whose pathless deserts 
and difficult passes he had done more than any 
other man to describe and map. He who had 
always been foremost of his company, rode now 
behind and in dis2:race. 

San Fi'ancisco was fast outgrowing in impor- 



224 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 

CHAP, tance tlie older towns of the coast. In March, 
_^_ 1848, its population numbered over eight hun- 
1848. dred. Two wharves were beino; constructed. 
'"'"^' A public school had been opened. The unoc- 
cupied iifty-vara lots, into which O'Farrell's 
survey divided the land north of Market Street, 
w^ere granted by the alcalde to any who peti- 
tioned for them and paid, including the cost of 
recording, sixteen dollars a lot ; while those 
southerly of Market Street, each by the sur- 
vey one hundred varas square, cost to the 
petitioner twenty-nine dollars. The city, on 
the maps, embraced Telegraph and Rincon 
Hills, the land between, and the area west- 
ward to about two miles from the water- 
front. Yet really it nestled along the 1)each, 
and encroached very little either on the sand- 
hills or the rocky heights that overhang the 
bay. But there was already about it the busy 
hum of an American town. All felt that its 
rapid growth was predestined. It must soon 
• become a notable mart. Every week added to 
its population. Its thrift was the theme of 
every day's discourse. 

Suddenly its streets were deserted, its busi- 
June. ness stopped, its infant commerce was paralyzed. 
The desertion was as instant and complete as 
if a pestilence had swept over the j^eninsula — 
and not in San Francisco alone, Imt every 
little village in the province shared the sud- 



SUDDE]Sr DEPOPULATION OF THE TOWNS. 225 

den depopulation. The people were all flying chap. 
eastward and northward, to the foot-hills of the ._^ 
Sierra Nevada ! 1848. 

The Californian issued an extra, apologizing 
for the non-appearance of its regular edition. 
" The whole country," said its editor in his fare- 
well, " ft'om San Francisco to Los Angeles, re- 
sounds with the sordid cry of ' Gold.' " The 
California Sta?' held out a fortnight longer, 
when, everybody in his office having deserted 
him, the editor announced that he must stop 
its issue. 

15 



226 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE DISCOVERY OF GOLD. 

Gold was discovered at Ooloma, on the Amer- 
J848 ican E-iver, January 19tb, 1848, and the most 
Jan. 19 skeptical and phlegmatic, by the middle of the 
following spiring, were yielding to its attrac- 
tions. Governor Mason left Monterey on the 
lYth of June to visit the place, and the account 
that he wrote home to the War Department 
created a great sensation. 

He alleojed that the land was full of g-old. 
"I have no hesitation in saying," he wrote, 
" that there is more gold in the country drained 
by the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, 
than will pay the costs of the late war in Mex- 
ico a hundred times over. Nearly all the Mor- 
mons," he added, " are leaving California to go 
to Salt Lake, and this they surely ^vould not 
do unless they were sure of finding gold there 
in the same abundance as they now do on the 
Sacramento." 

This was remarked as if quite incidentally ; 
but to many people at the East, the governor 



GOVERNOR mason's REPORT. 227 

knew that tlie departure of the Mormons out chap. 
of the land would be scarcely less welcome news — ^-^ 
than the mineral discoveries. Again, but not i^^^- 
as if the matter much affected him, Governor 
Mason mentioned a visit to the New Almaden 
quicksilver mine of Alexander Forbes, the Brit- 
ish Consul. The mining world appreciated the 
point, and observed that quicksilver, so neces- 
sary to every gold-miner, was produced abun- 
dantly within easy reach of the gold-fields. 
Finally, the governor said, " No capital is re- 
quired to obtain the gold, as the laboring-man 
wants nothing but his pick and shovel, and tin 
pan, with which to dig and wash the gravel, 
and many frequently pick gold out of the crev- 
ices of rocks with their butcher-knives, in pieces 
of from one to six ounces !" 

The party in the States which had opposed 
the Administration of Mr, Polk in the Mexican 
war, ridiculed mercilessly the whole story of 
the gold discovery. This last statement, they 
thought, must break the back of the camel 
credulity. It was too much like reproducing 
one of De Foe's imaginary adventures in South 
America, to be for one moment believed by 
solder men on the Atlantic slope. 

• Yet it was substantially and literally true. 
Let us follow the governor on his tour, as de- 
tailed in his letter to the War Department : — 

He found San Francisco deserted of nearly 



228 THE inSTORY OF CALIF OENIA. 

CHAP, all its male inhabitants, and even females were 
_^ very scarce there. Betw^een Sonoma and Sut- 
1848. ter's Fort the mills were idle ; the fields of 
""^" wheat open to cattle ; the houses vacant ; the 
farms going to waste. At Sutter's there was 
much life and bustle. Flour was selling at 
thirty-six dollars a barrel, and the captain was 
carefully gathering his croj)s of wheat, estimated 
at forty thousand bushels. Several stores had 
been established, and a hotel erected. Cargoes 
were being discharged at the river-side, and 
carts were hauling goods to the fort. The cap- 
tain had two mechanics in his employ, to each 
of whom he paid ten dollars a day. A two- 
story house in the fort was rented as a hotel, at 
five hundred dollars a month. 
July. On the 5th of July he pushed up the Amer- 
ican fork of the Sacramento some twenty-five 
miles, where he found a mining camp in full 
operation. Canvas tents and arbors of bushes 
strewed the hill-side. There was a store 
opened, and several shanties were used as 
boarding-houses. The sun poured down its 
rays with intense heat upon two hundred miners 
working for gold, some using tin pans, some 
Indian baskets, and some rude cradles. Going 
farther up the American, he reached the spot, 
fifty miles above Sutter's Fort, where the gold 
was first found. 

The people at work there were averaging 



PBEVIOUS EEPORTS OF GOLD DISCOYEEIES. 229 

from one to three ounces of orold a day. At chap. 

XVIII 

eight miles above Weber's Creek, the governor _^_^ 
was shown a small gutter where two men had 1848. 
taken out seventeen thousand dollars worth of 
gold. At the end of one week's work they had 
paid off their party of hired men and found ten 
thousand dollars worth left in their hands. He 
saw a small ravine out of which twelve thou- 
sand dollars h^d been taken. " Hundreds of 
similar ravines, to all appearances, w^ere as yet 
untouched." Men who were getting fifty dol- 
lars a day were leaving because they could do 
better at other places. Three miles above Sut- 
ter's, on the American, he met a Mr. Sinclair, 
who employed fifty Indians for five weeks, and 
showed, as his net proceeds, gold to the value 
of sixteen thousand dollars: the last week's 
results were fourteen pounds avoirdupois of gold. 
A soldier got a furlough of twenty days from 
the artillery company to which he belonged. 
He spent most of it in travelling, but one week 
in mining, during which week he made fifteen 
hundred dollars — more than all his pay, clothes, 
and rations for the five years of his enlistment. 
All prices were enormous, of course, yet 
the treasure was so plenty that even Indians 
could sport gaudily-colored dresses. The most 
moderate estimate that the governor could 
obtain was, that four thousand men were work- 
ing in the gold district, more than half of whom 



230 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORIN'IA. 

CHAP, were Indians, and that from thirty thousand to 
XVIII. ^^-^^ thousand dollars worth of gold were taken 
1848. out daily. Astonishing to relate, crime was in- 
frequent in the mines. There were no thefts 
or robberies, though all lived in tents or bush 
arbors, or in the open air, and the workmen 
frequently had thousands of dollars wortli of 
dust about their ]3ersons. 

Such statements as these, coming from an 
official source, and presented to Congress with 
the report of the Secretary of War, could not 
but stir the country to its remotest corners. 

In Hakluyt's account of Drake's visit to the 
California coast, in 1579, occurs the following 
statement concerning its mineral wealth : — 
" There is no paii; of the earth here to be taken 
up wherein there is not a reasonable quantity 
of gold and silver." There is little reason to 
believe that this assertion was based uj^on any 
knowledge of the fact averred. Yet the Span- 
iards and Mexicans who visited the Californias 
saw the indications of srold in the soil. In tlie 
vicinity of the Colorado they found the precious 
metal itself So, though they did not find it 
in paying quantities, the impression went abroad 
that it was a mineral region, and a vague sus- 
picion of the truth perhaps crossed the minds 
of American politicians who plotted and log- 
rolled to annex a slice of Mexico to the Union. 
Indeed, President Polk, in his Message of 1 848, 



HOW THE GOLD WAS FOUND. 231 

said that it was known that mines of precious chap. 
metals existed to a considerable extent in Cali- 
fornia at the time of its acquisition. 1848. 

But Alexander Forbes, in 1835, wrote, "No 
minerals of particular importance have yet been 
found in Upper California, nor any ores of 
metals ;" and speaking of Hijar's emigrants who 
arrived in 1833, he said there were among them 
" goldsmiths, proceeding to a country where no 
gold existed." 

There are reports that silver was discovered 
in Alizal, Monterey County, in 1802, and gold 
in San Isidro, San Diego County, in 1828. A 
place on the San Francisquito Canon, forty-iive 
miles northward from Los Angeles, discovered 
in 1838, was worked till 1848, yielding an 
average of six thousand dollars a year. These 
meagre hints of the presence of precious metals 
were only sufficient to warm the fancy of san- 
guine prophets of the future of the land, but 
they did not affect the popular sentiment or 
excite general attention. 

The wonder is now that the discovery was 
not earlier made. Emigrants, settlers, hunters, 
practical miners, scientific exploring parties had 
camped on, settled in, hunted through, dug in, 
and explored the region, and could not see it. 
Professor Dana, the geologist of Wilkes's ex- 
ploring expedition, did say that gold rocks and 
veins of quartz were observed by him in 1843, 



232 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, near the Umpqua River in Ore2:on, and pebbles 

XVIII • • . 

, ■ from similar rocks were met with along the 

1848. shores of the Sacramento ; and when speaking 
of places where gold was to be found, he men- 
tions " California, between the Sierra Nevada 
and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers." 
But it is very doubtful whether it occuiTed to 
Professor Dana that there was gold to be found 
here in quantities that would ever get into more 
practical use than to lie as rare specimens be- 
hind plate-glass doors in the mineralogical cab- 
inets of the collea:es. 

The discovery was entirely accidental. Cap- 
tain Sutter had contracted with James W. 
Marshall, in September, 1847, for the construc- 
tion of a saw-mill at Coloma. In the course 
of the winter a dam and race were made, but 
when the water was let on, the tail-race was too 
narrow. To widen and deepen it, Marshall let 
a strong current of water directly into the race, 
which bore a large body of mud and gravel to 
the foot. 

Jan. 1 9. On the 19th of January, 1840, Marshall ob- 
served some glittering particles in the race, 
which he was curious enough to examine. He 
called five carpenters who were at work on the 
mill to see them, but though they talked over 
the possibility of its being gold, the vision did 
not inflame them. Peter L. Weimar claims 
that he was with Marshall when the first piece 



HOW THE GOLD WAS DISCOVERED. 233 

of the "yellow stuff" was picked up. It was chap. 
a pebble weigliing six pennyweights and eleven _^_ 
grains. Marshall gave it to Mrs. Weimar, and 1848. 
asked her to boil it in saleratus water and see 
what came of it. As she was making soap at 
the time, she pitched it into the soap-kettle. 
About twenty-four hours afterwards it was 
fished out and found all the brighter for its 
boilinor. 

Marshall, two or three weeks later, took the 
specimens below, and gave them to Sutter 
to have them tested. Before Sutter had quite 
satisfied himself as to their nature, he went up 
to the mill, and with Marshall made a treaty 
with the Indians, buying of them their titles to 
the region round about, for a certain amount of 
goods. There was an effort made to keep the 
secret inside the little circle that knew it, but 
it soon leaked out. They had many misgiv. 
ings and much discussion whether they were 
not making themselves ridiculous, yet by com- 
mon consent all began to hunt, though with no 
great spirit, for the " yellow stuff " that might 
prove such a prize. 

In February, one of the party went to Yerba Feb. 
Buena, taking some of the dust with him. 
Fortunately he stumbled upon Isaac Humphrey, 
an old Georgian gold-miner, who, at the first 
look at the specimens, said they were gold, and 
that the diggings must be rich. Humphrey 



334 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, tried to induce some of his friends to cfo up 
XVIII • • . . 

,_^ with him to the mill, but they thought it a 

1848. crazy expedition, and left him to go alone. He 
' '"'^^' reached there on the 7th of March. A few 
were hunting for gold, but rather lazily, and the 
work on the mill went on as usual. Next day 
he began " prospecting," and soon satisfied him- 
self that he had struck a rich j)lacer. He made 
a rocker, and then commenced work in earnest. 
A few days later a Frenchman, Baptiste, 
formerly a miner in Mexico, left the lumber he 
was sawing for Sutter at Weber's, ten miles 
east of Coloma, and came to the mill. He 
agreed with Humphrey that the region was rich, 
and like him took to the pan and the rocker. 
These two men were the competent practical 
teachers of the crowd that flocked in to see 
how they did it. The lesson was easy, the 
process simple. An houi''s observation fitted 
the least experienced for working to advan- 
tage. 



GRAND EUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 235 



CHAPTER XIX. 

GRAND RUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 

About a month after the gold discovery, but ^^J^- 
before it was much bruited, an armistice be- ^-v — ' 
tween the United States and Mexico was ao;reed \?*,^- 

* Feb. 

upon. The treaty of peace which followed was 
ratified by the United States in March, by 
Mexico in May. 

The news reached California late in the sum- Aug. 
mer, and was honored with illuminations, the 
explosion of some gunpowder, and processions. 
The terms of the treaty were satisfactory to the 
war party. In consideration of the assumption 
by the United States of the Mexican debt to 
American subjects, and of fifteen millions of 
money, the free navigation of the Colorado, from 
the mouth of the Gila to the Gulf, and of the 
Gulf itself, and all right and title to Texas, New 
Mexico and Upper California were ceded to 
the United States. Lower California, much to 
the disgust of Captain Halleck and other mili- 
tary men, who had been at pains to hold it while 
the war lasted, was left with Mexico. It was 
despised as an arid, barren, worthless i^eninsuLi. 



236 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. The opponents of tlie Administration held tlie 
_.^_^ treaty to be a very fit conclusion for a demor- 
1848. alizing and unnecessary war. It paid an enor- 
mous price, they said, for what we were a great 
deal better without. It annexed an immense 
territory that we did not need, and, worst fea- 
ture of all, that territory was populous with 
Indians, of whom we had more on our hands 
than we had yet learned to take care of, and 
with drowsy Mexicans, who never could be 
worked over into American citizens, or brought 
into harmony with American ideas. If they 
knew it, they gave little heed to the fact that 
there were already from twelve to fifteen thou- 
sand whites in California, and there was no 
seer to foretell the revolution that was about to 
sweep through every settlement in the Union, 
when the news should reach it of how those 
whites in California were employing them- 
selves. 

The story of the great gold discoveries in 
California crept slowly into the faith of the 
people of the Union, but once there, the whole 
lump was soon leavened. The President in- 
dorsed, in a measure, the truth of the reports 
of army and navy officers on the Pacific coast, 
by sending them with the documents accom- 
panying his message to Congress. They were 
printed in the newspapers, and became the 
topic of Congressional debate, and soon every 



THE RUSH TO CALIFORNIA. 23 Y 

rural district was eclioiiig those debates. Spe- ^^^• 
cimens of the gold were exhibited in the cities, -— ., — • 
inflaming the imas^ination of the coolest. The i^^^- 
whole land experienced a new sensation. 

Some of the New York papers said the gold 1848. 
was mica; but as an offset to these opinions 
was the announcement of Director Patterson, 
of the Philadelphia Mint, that the first deposits 
of ffold from California were worth eio-hteen 
dollars and five and a half cents per ounce. 
Colonel Benton said in the Senate : " I am a 1849. 
friend to a gold currency, but not to gold min- 
ing. . . I regret that we have these mines in Cal- 
ifornia, but they are there, and I am for getting 
rid of them as soon as possible." Again he 
said, " The gold in these washings is a tempo- 
rary crop — a mine is one thing, a wash is anoth- 
er." The gold washings of California, or placers 
— called so, he said, from the Latin placere, to 
please, because there was a very lively short- 
lived pleasure experienced when a man finds 
one of them — were marvellously rich, yet not so 
rich as those of Brazil, a hundred years ago, 
which were exhausted so long since that all mem- 
ory of them is lost. 

But soon the California fever was raging like 
an epidemic in every section — even in those 
rare spots whore migration was discouraged by 
the example of a couple of centuries, it swept 
through like an influenza. High and low, rich 



238 THE inSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, and poor took it. They could actually pick 
_^ the gold out from the crevices of the rocks with 
1848- their knives ! Then it required no more capi- 
tal to get all the gold that a modest man ought 
to wish, than one's passage-money and his bare 
living at the mines ! Plad a family man the 
right to 2)lod all his life, and die at last leaving 
those dependent on him v^ith a mere pittance, 
v^hen a little energy, or a year or two of " rough- 
ing it in the mines," would give him, and those 
he lived for, a comj^etency ? 

Before such considerations as these, the con- 
servatism of the most stable bent. Men of 
small means, whose tastes inclined them to 
keep out of all hazardous schemes and uncer- 
tain enterprises, thought they saw duty beck- 
oning them around the Horn, or across the 
plains. In many a family circle, where nothing 
l)ut the strictest economy could make the two 
ends of the year meet, there were long and anx- 
ious consultations, which resulted in selling off 
a piece of the homestead or of the woodland, or 
the choicest of the stock, to fit out one sturdy 
representative to make a fortune for the family. 
Hundreds of farms were mortgaged to buy tick- 
ets to the land of gold. Some insured their 
lives and pledged their })olicies for an outfit. 
The wild boy was packed off hopefully. Thw 
black sheep of the flock was dismissed with a 
blessing, and the forlorn hope that, with a 



THE RUSH TO CALIFOENIA. 239 

change of skies, there miffht be a chanQ-e of chap. 

XIX 

manners. The stay of the happy household ^_^ 
said, " Good-by, but only for a year or two " i849. 
to his charge. Unhappy husbands availed 
themselves cheerfully of this cheap and repu- 
table method of divorce, trusting time to mend 
or mar matters in their absence. Here was a 
chance to begin life anew. Whoever had be- 
gun it badly, or made slow headway on the 
right course, might start again in a region where 
Fortune had not learned to coquette with and 
dupe her wooers. 

The adventurers generally formed companies^ 
expecting to go overland or by sea to the mines, 
and to dissolve partnership only after a first 
trial of luck together in the "diggings." In 
the Eastern and Middle States they would buy 
up an old whaling-ship, just ready to be con 
demned to the wreckers, put in a cargo of such 
stuff as they must need themselves, and pro- 
visions, tools, or goods, that must be sure to 
bring returns enough to make the venture prof- 
itable. Of course, the whole fleet rushing in 
tos^ether throu2:h the Golden Gate, made most 
of these ventures profitless, even when the guess 
was happy as to the kind of supplies needed 
by the Californians. It can hardly be believed 
what sieves of ships started, and how many of 
them actually made the voyage. Little river- 
steamers, that had scarcely tasted salt water be- 



24:0 THE HISTORY OF CALITORNIA. 

CHAP, fore, were fitted out to thread tbe Straits of 

__^ Magellan, and these were welcomed to the bays 

1849. and rivers of California, whose waters some of 

them ploughed and vexed busily for years 

afterwards. 

Then steamers, as well as all manner of sail- 
incr vessels, began to be advertised to run to the 
Isthmus ; and they generally went crowded to 
excess with passengers, some of whom were 
fortunate enough, after the toilsome ascent of 
the Chagres River, and the descent either on 
mules or on foot to Panama, not to be detained 
more than a month waiting for the crafts that 
had rounded the Horn, and by which they were 
ticketed to proceed to Sau Francisco. But 
hundreds broke down under the horrors of 
the voyage in the steerage, contracted on the 
Isthmus the low typhoid fevers incident to 
tropical marshy regions, and died. 

The overland emigrants, unless they came 
too late in the season to the Sierras, seldom 
suffered as much, as they had no great variation 
of climate on their route. They had this ad- 
vantage, too, that the mines lay at the end of 
their long road, while the sea faring, when they 
landed, had still a weary journey before them. 
Few tarried longer at San Francisco than was 
necessary to learn how utterly useless were the 
curious patent mining contrivances they had 
brought, and to replace them with the pick, 



THE EUSH TO CALIFOElSriA. 241 

shovel, pan, and cradle. If any one found him- chap. 
self destitute of funds to go farther, there was 
work enough to raise them by. Labor was i849. 
honorable, and the daintiest dandy, if he were 
honest, could not resist the temptation to work 
where wages were so high, pay so prompt, and 
employers so flush. 

There were not lackins; in San Francisco 
grumblers who had tried the mines and satis- 
fied themselves that it cost about a dollar's 
worth of sweat and time, and living exclusively 
on bacon, beans, and "slap-jacks," to pick a dol- 
lar's worth of gold out of rock, or river-bed, or 
dry ground ; but they confessed that the good 
luck which they never enjoyed, abode with 
others. Then the display of dust, slugs, ami 
bars of gold in the public gambling-places — the 
sight of men arriving every day freighted with 
belts full, which they 2)arted with so freely as 
men only can when they have got it easily— the 
testimony of the miniature rocks — the solid 
nuggets brought down fi^om above every few 
days, whose size and value rumor multiplied 
according to the number of her tongues — the 
talk day and night unceasingly and exclusively 
of "gold, easy to get and hard to hold," in- 
flamed all new-comers with the desire to hurry 
on and share the chances. They chafed at the 
necessary detentions. They nervously feared 
that all would be gone before they should arrive. 

16 



242 THE HISTOKY OF CALITORlSnA. 

The prevalent impression was, that the placers 
would give out in a year or two. Then it be- 
1849. hooved him who expected to gain much to be 
among the earliest on the ground. Where ex- 
periment was so fresh in the field, one theory 
was about as good as another. An hypothesis 
that lured men perpetually farther up the 
gorges of the foot-hills, and to explore the 
canons of the mountains, was this: that the gold 
which had been found in the beds of rivers, or 
in gulches, through which streams once ran, 
must have been washed down from the places 
of original deposits farther up the mountains. 
The higher up the gold-hunter went, then, the 
nearer he approached the source of supply. 

To reach the mines from San Francisco, the 
course lay up San Pablo and Suisun Bays, and 
the Sacramento, not then as now a yellow, 
muddy stream, but a river pellucid and 
deep, to the landing for Sutter's Fort ; and 
they who made the voyage in sailing vessels 
thought Mount Diablo significantly named, so 
long it kept them company and swung its shad- 
ow over their path. From Sutter's, the most 
common route was across the broad, fertile val- 
ley to the foot-hills, and up the American or 
some one of its tributaries ; or, ascending the 
Sacramento to the Feather and the Yuba, the 
company staked off a claim, pitched its tent or 
constructed a cabin, and set up its rocker, or 



HURRYING TO THE MINES. 243 

began to oust the river from a portion of its chap. 
bed. Good luck might hold the impatient ad- _^ 
venturers for a whole season on one bar ; bad i849. 
luck scattered them always farther up. 

So it was not gradually, but almost simul- 
taneously, that the settlement of the northern 
raining region was effected. The great trouble 
was the excess of water in the winter, and its 
deficiency in the summer. But the mountains 
where the branches of the San Joaquin rise 
being farther south, are covered with a thinner 
mantle of snow than those that feed the Sacra- 
mento, and consequently those southern rivers 
never ra2:e with such tumultuous floods. It 
required but a year's experience to discover 
that the mines of the south could be best 
worked during the wet weather, when the 
northern ones were impracticable. So, though 
the more sober and persevering stuck by the 
bars that paid them, and spent the months 
when they could not get out gold, in con- 
structing flumes and dams that would put the 
water henceforth under their control, the fluc- 
tuating population alternated like a tide be- 
tween the northern mines in the summer and 
the southern in the winter. 

Roads sought the mining camps, which did 
not stop to study roads. Traders came in to 
supply the camps, and, not very fast, but still 
to some extent, mechanics and farmers to sup- 



244 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

^XTX*' P^^ ^*^^^ traders and miners ; so, as if hj magic, 
^^ — • within, a year or two after tlie riish began, the 

1849. jjiap of the country was written thick with the 
names of settlements. 

Some of these were the nuclei of towns that 
now flourish and promise to continue as long 
as the State is peopled. Others, in districts 
where the placers were soon exhausted, were 
deserted almost as hastily as they were begun, 
and now no traces remain of them except the 
short chimney-stack, tlie broken surface of the 
ground, lieaps of cobble-stones, rotting half- 
buried sluice-boxes, empty whiskey bottles, 
scattered playing-cards, and rusty cans. 

The "fall of '49 and spring of '50" is the 
-jg^g era of California history, which the pioneer al- 

1850. ways speaks of with warmth. It was the free- 
and-easy age, when everybody was flush, and 
fortune, if not in the pahn, was only just beyond 
the grasp of all. Men lived chiefly in tents, or 
in cabins scarcely more durable, and behaved 
themselves like a generation of bachelors. The 
family was beyond the mountains ; the restraints 
of society had not yet arrived. Men threw off 
the masks they had lived behind, and appeared 
out in their true character. A few did not dis- 
charge the consciences and convictions they 
brought with them. More rollicked in a per- 
fect freedom from those bonds which o-ood men 
cheerfully assume in settled society for the good 




FLUSH, RECKLESS TIMES. 245 

of the greater number. Some afterwards re- 
sumed their temperate and steady habits ; but 
hosts were wrecked before the period of their 
license expired. 

Very rarely did men on their arrival in the 
country begin to work at their old trade or pro- 
fession. To the mines first. If fortune favored, 
they soon quit for more congenial employments. 
If she frowned, they might depart disgusted, if 
they were able ; but oftener, from sheer in- 
ability to leave the business, they kept on, 
drifting from bar to bar, living fast, reckless, 
improvident, half-civilized lives; comparatively 
rich to-day, poor to-morrow ; tormented with 
rheumatisms and agues ; remembering dimly 
the joys of the old homestead ; nearly weaned 
from the friends at home, who, because they 
were never heard from, soon became like dead 
men in their memor^^ ; seeing little of women, 
and nothing of churches ; self-reliant, yet satis- 
fied that there was nowhere any "show" for 
them ; full of enterprise in the direct line of 
their business, and utterly lost on the thresh- 
old of any other ; genial companions, mor- 
bidly craving after newspapers; good fellows, 
but short-lived. In fifteen years almost the 
Tvhole generation of pioneer miners who re- 
mained in that business has passed away, and 
the sui'vivors feel like old men among the 
crowds of new-comers, who may be just as 



246 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, old, but lack their long, strange chapter of 

^,^,,_^ adventures. 

1849- This heterogeneous mixture of men was either 
"* ■ without law, or were the makers and executors 
of their own law. Most of the companies that 
left the East together quarrelled and dissolved 
partnership, but they had very little litigation 
about it. Generally equity ruled in the divi- 
sioUj for all men claimed equality, and public 
sentiment was sharp for the right. Theft was 
a crime little known, but, when discovered, the 
penalty was as swift as it was terrilde. Lynch- 
law was substantially the criminal code of the 
mines. Its seveiity held crime in check, but 
some frio'htful mistakes were made as to the 
objects of its stern sentences. 
^ As to civil law, the country was utterly at 
sea. It had a governor in the person of the 
commandant of the military district it belonged 
to, but no government. The authority by 
which the governor held his power was doubt- 
ful and anomalous. While the war lasted, 
♦ California, as a conquered province, expected to 

be governed by military officers, who, by virtue 
of their command of the Department, bore sway 
over all the territory that their Department em- 
braced. But after peace had come, and the suc- 
cession of military governors was not abated, 
a people who had been in the habit of govern- 
ing themselves under the same flag and the 



ANOMALOUS CIVIL GOVERNIVrENT. 247 

same constitution, chafed that a simple change chap. 
of longitude should deprive them of their in- 
alienable rights. 1849- 

General Persifer F. Smith, who assumed com- 
mand on arriving by the California^ the first 
steamship that i-eached San Francisco (February 
28th, 1849), and General Riley, who succeeded 
him (April loth, 1849), would have been ac- 
ceptable governors enough, if the people could 
liave discovered anywhere in the Constitution 
that the President had power to govern a terri- 
tory by a simple order to the commandant of a 
military department. The power was obvious 
in time of war, but in peace it was unprece- 
dented. Left entirely to themselves, the people 
could have organized a squatter sovereignty, as 
Oregon had done, and the way into the sister- 
hood of States was clear. 

They felt that they had cause for complaint, 
but in truth they were quite too busy to nurse 
their grievance and make much of it. To some 
extent they formed local governments, and had 
unimportant collisions with the military. But 
busy as they were, and expecting to return 
home soon, they humored their contempt for 
politics, and left public matters to be shaped at 
Washington. Nor was that so unwise a course 
under the circumstances, for the thing that had 
hindered Congress from giving them a legiti- 
mate constitutional government was the ever- 



248 THE IIISTOKT OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, present snag in the current of American polit- 

^__JJ^ ical history, the author of most of our woes, 

1849- the great mother of mischief on the Western 

^^^^- continent — Slavery. 



CALIFORNIAN AFFAIRS AT WASHINGTON. 249 



CHAPTER XX. 

CONGIiESS FAILS TO PROVIDE A GOVERNMENT. 

President Polk had asked the Twenty -ninth chap. 
Congress to place at his disposal three millions ^"^ 
of dollars to be used in negotiating for a boun- i846. 
dary which would give to the United States 
additional teri-itory. To a bill granting him a 
portion of that sum, David Wihnot moved his 
famous " proviso," that no part of the territory 
to be acquired should be oj)en to the introduc- 
tion of slavery. The proviso was adopted in 
the House, and that killed the bill itself in the 
Senate. Giddings said, "We souo;ht to extend 
and perpetuate slavery in a peaceful manner by 
the annexation of Texas ; now we are about 
to effect that object by war and conquest." 
They said Giddings could see slavery where 
nobody else dreamed of it, but none were so 
blind as not to see that the slavery question 
was the substance and spirit of the whole con- 
troversy about acquiring California and other 
territory from Mexico. 

At the next session (1847), the three mil- 
lions were aj)propriated. Thomas Corwin noti- 



250 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORlSrEA. 

CHAP, lied the Senate that they were paying dear for 
^___, California. If the war terminated in any thiug 
1847. short of a mere wanton waste of blood and 
money, it must end in the acquisition of terri- 
tory to which the slavery controversy must at- 
tach. " Should we prosecute this war another 
moment, or expend one dollar in the purchase 
or conquest of a single acre of Mexican land, 
the North and the South would be brought 
into collision on a i^oint where neither would 
yield." 

Calhoun attempted to meet the case with a 
new dogma. He moved resolutions declaring 
in effect that Congress had no right to prohibit 
slavery in a territory, and that the exercise of 
such a power was a breach of the Constitution 
leading to the subversion of the Union. " Your 
dogma admitted," said Colonel Benton, " the 
Free Soilere have nothing: to fear, and the Slave 
Soilers nothing to fear from the admission of 
California. By a fundamental law of the 
Mexican Republic slavery is prohibited through- 
out its political jurisdiction. The prohibition 
was proclaimed by President Guerrero in 1829. 
An act of the Mexican ConsTress declared 
slavery abolished in 1837, and in 1844 the 
Constitution forbade it forever. Then if you 
take California for a part of your territory, you 
take her free, and if Congress, as you say, has 
no power to legislate upon slavery in the terri- 



CALIFORNIAN AFFAIRS AT WASITINGTON". 251 

tories, the slavery question has nothing to do chap. 
with the question of acquiring land." v--^-' 

Calhoun's resolutions never came to a vote. i847. 
He and his party soon chose a different ground, 
and the battle between the giants of the Senate 
was set with California as the guerdon, Cali- 
fornia with slavery would have been welcomed 
to the Union by the South. Without slavery, 
she was coveted by the North. Change the 
terms, and neither would consent to receive her. 
Indeed, there was a small minority, mostly 
composed of conservative Whigs, who cherished 
the Grecian L'tatesman's advice — " You have a 
Sparta — improve it," — and they protested that 
to enlaige our boundaries in any direction, or 
at any price, would be a damage to the com- 
monwealth. 

As the prospects of making California a Slave 
State faded, Calhoun asked, " Is there any man 
here who would give for her fifteen millions of 
money V Benton thought better of this land, 
of which he knew more. Dix appreciated its 
value to American commerce ; but was sure the 
North would spurn it if slavery were to be in- 
troduced by American law upon soil rendered 
forever free by Mexican laAv. None dreamed 
that the region about which they haggled so 
long would be producing and exporting, within 
a few years, gold enough to pay the price, which 
Calhoun thought so extravagant, twice over 



252 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEl^IA. 

CHAP, every twelve montlis. The negro question ef- 
___^ fectuall}' closed the golden gate that year, and 

1847. Congress adjourned without taking any steps 
towards opening it. 

In the spring of 1848 the treaty of peace was 

1848. signed by which California was annexed to the 
United. States. How to govern this new terri- 
tory sorely exercised Congress ; and the debate 
on the subject raged with violence until the 
12th of July, when Senator Clayton moved a 
committee of eight — half Northerners, half 
Southerners, half Whigs, half Democrats — to 
consider all the measures proposed. The reso- 
lution prevailed, and the committee was ap- 
pointed — Clayton, chairman ; Calhoun, Bright, 
Clark of Rhode Island, Atchison, Phelps, D. 
S. Dickinson, and Underwood of Kentucky. 
In committee, the South favored extending the 
Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific ; but 
the North opposed it. The chairman was finally 
ordered to draft a compromise bill establishing 
the territorial governments of Oregon, Califor- 
nia, and New Mexico, and submitting all ques 
tions as so the riii^htful existence or extension 
of slavery in these ten-itories to the decision of 
the United States Supreme Court. The bill was 
reported, argued, urged, fought, and finally or- 
dered engrossed l)y ayes thirty- three, noes twen- 
ty-two — Dix, Hale, Hamlin, and Corwin voting 
no. This victory for the South was accom- 



NO GOVERNMENT PEOVIDED. 253 

plished by means of a memorable session of chap. 
twenty hours, the majority achieving its pur- ,_^^ 
pose, and the Senate adjourning at seven min- i848. 
utes of eight o'clock on Thursday morning, 
July 27th. 

But the victory was barren. The House, 
receiving the bill, tabled it by a vote of one 
hundred and twelve to ninety-seven — three- 
fourths of those voting to kill the Vnll by ta- 
blino; itbeino: Northern men. 

Meanwhile President Polk had, by message, 
called the attention of Congress to the ample 
indemnity that California gave for the past. 
He had dwelt on the value of the public 
lands of California, on the safety of her har- 
bors, on the rich Eastern commerce that she 
insured, on the new markets she would fur- 
nish, on the increased tonnage she would re- 
quire, and the enhanced revenue that she must 
return. 

When Congress adjourned without taking 
a step for the government of the newly acquired 
territory. President Polk, through his Secretaiy 
of State, James Buchanan, dispatched a letter 
to the Pacific coast to assure the people how 
matters stood. The Administration's doctrine 
was, that the Californians had a government 
de facto. To that they were advised to submit. . 
Their consent to it would be presumed so long 
as they submitted, and there need be no ques- 



254 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CMAP. tlon by what authority the officers of the army 

^ ■ were governing them. 

1848. Now, Colonel Benton held that the right to 
issue letters expository and of advice was not 
exclusively with Secretaries of State or Presi- 
sidents ; so he, too, wrote a letter to the Cali- 
fornians, and sent it by the hands of Colonel 
Fremont. He assured them that by the treaty 
they were United States citizens, competent to 
govern themselves. He pronounced the edicts 
of Gtn^ernors Mason and Kearny, " each an 
ignoramus," null and void. He warmly recom- 
mended that they call a convention and provide 
themselves with a governor, with judges, and 
with peace and militia officers. 

President Polk's messao-e to Concrress, on its 
reassembling, December, 1848, recommended the 
establishment of a mint at San Francisco, and 
called attention again to the necessity of erect- 
ing some form of government for the country. 

Senator Douglas sprang to the work so eager- 
ly, and persisted in it so well, that it was said 
of him, by way of ridicule, that he had a special 
mission to give California a government. On 
the very first day of the session he gave notice 
that he would introduce a bill for the admission 
of California as a State. On the seventh the bill 
was forthcoming. He despaired, he said, of 
making it a Territory — three several bills to 
that effect having failed during the preceding 



THE STRUGGLE EST THE SENATE. 255 

session. Now, lie proposed that all the region chap. 
acquired by treaty from Mexico be admitted as _^J^ 
one State, with two judicial districts, Congress 1848. 
reserving the right to receive other States out 
of that portion of it east of the Siejra Nevada. 
Afterwards, he proposed an amendment, author- 
izing the judges to lay off the land into dis- 
tricts, and provide for the election of delegates 
to a constitutional convention. 

This bill was referred to the Judiciary Commit- 
tee, which — Mr. Down-^, of Louisiana, alone clis- 1849. 
senting — reported adversely upon it. The report 
argued that the Constitution provided only 
for the admission, not for the creation of States; 
that the proviso that Congress should reserve 
the right to carve out from a State, once admit- 
ted, other States, was void, and the bill would 
inevitably lead to litigation between Texas and 
California, which the Supreme Court must 
eventually decide, with all the delay incident 
to such investiirations. The committee recom- 
mended that, instead of one State, the newly 
acquired region be erected into two territories. 
Mr. Douglas, foiled by the Judiciary, man- 
a<^'"ed to g-et his bill referred to a select commit- 
tee, composed of Senators Johnson, Jones, 
Clayton, Jefferson Davis, Badger, and Niles, 
with himself as chairman, which promptly 
reported a bill erecting the territory into the 
two States of California and New Mexico. 



256 THE HISTOIIY OF CALIFOENIA. 

In the course of the discussions that arose 
upon these several bills, some notable things 
1849. -^ere said. Mr. Downs urged that California 
should be brought into the Union at once, lest, 
debiying, she might never come in. Mr. But- 
ler pictured the surprise these Californians 
would feel, waking up and finding themselves 
a soverei2:n State, without ashing:: for it. 

Ml'. Dayton objected that there was not pop- 
ulation enough, nor were the people of the 
right soi't to be admitted with safety. The sub- 
stratimi of population consisted of some twelve 
or fifteen thousand people of Spanish origin, 
retired ofiicers, retired soldiers, the remnants of 
the old Franciscan missions. Not as many 
more were on their way thither by sea and a 
few overland, who did not proj)ose to stay. 
They were heterogeneous, crazy about gold, in. 
diiTerent to government. "You would have 
to lasso your members to get them to a consti- 
tutional convention. My word for it," said he, 
in the course of one or two years your ships 
will retui-n laden with more gold-diggers than 
gold-dust." 

Mr. Wel)ster said they could do little more 
there than keep the peace ; it was impracticable 
to administer revenue laws. A military gov- 
ernment there for the present would be the best 
for the people, and the only safe course for the 
whole country. 



THE STRUGGLE IN CONGEESS, 2^57 

But all the efforts of the " Little Giant " of chap. 
Illinois to push his bill forward were m vani. 
In the House, a territorial bill for California i849. 
passed, and Washington Hunt reported, from 
the Finance Committee, a bill to extend the 
United States levenue laws over Upper Cali- 
fornia ; but that failed. Then, almost in de- 
spair, attempts were made to attach amendments, 
that would secure a lawful collection of the 
revenue at San Francisco, to the army bill, and 
to the civil and diplomatic appropriation bills. 
At one time, Robert C. Schenck, a Whig, from 
Ohio, proposed to cede back to Mexico all Cali- 
fornia and New Mexico, if she would allow us 
twelve millions of dollars on account ; though 
if she would permit us to keep San Francisco, 
three millions of dollars were at her service as 
remuneration for the gift. This astonishing 
proposal, having been amended somewhat, ac- 
tually passed the committee of the whole House 
— ayes eio-hty-iive, Twes eighty-one. When it 
was reported to the House, however, and the 
ayes and noes called, it was rejected by eleven 
ayes to one hundred and ninety-four noes. 

In the Senate, again General Dix, of New 
York, regretted the necessity of discussing so 
grave a question in the form of an amendment 
to an appropriation bill. He was opposed to 
the admission ; he held that the inhabitants of 
Califoinia were mostly Indians, or Mexicans of 

17 



2 00 THE mSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, mixed blood, uneducated, not familiar with tlie 
■ business of self-government, not speaking our 
1849. language, not intelligent or cultivated to the 
standard of the American citizen. These ob- 
jections he considered insuperable to the im- 
mediate admission. He wanted to see the 
population that was pouring in from eveiy 
quarter of the globe pass through the process 
of fermentation and settle before permitting it 
to participate in the administration of the gov- 
ernment. He held that a territorial o;overn- 
ment should be organized for California and 
New Mexico, the bill to contain a prohibition 
of slavery, which, he said, would be agreeable 
to the wishes of the people of his State, New- 
York. He grieved over the news that he heard 
from the country. Said he, " In the recent dis- 
covery of gold, there is much to l)e deplored ; 
let us hope that it will soon become exhausted, 
and that the steady pursuits of agricultural, 
commercial, and mechanical industry, by which 
alone nations are made prosperous, may consti- 
tute the sole objects of application." 

For several days senators battled over the 
constitutional questions involved. Webster and 
Calhoun wrestled on this point — whether the 
Constitution of the United States extends over 
all its territories, as the latter argued, or can- 
not, by legislation, be extended an inch beyond 
the States' borders, as the former insisted. The 



A STORMY SUNDAY SESSIOI^". 259 

civil and diplomatic appropriation bill, wliicli chap. 
had passed tlie House, halted on its passage for 
these logicians to decide abstract propositions i849. 
which had no natural connection with any item 
in the bill, but were incident to the territorial 
questions that had been grafted on it by the 
Senate, ratlier than have them utterly ignored. 

The 4th of March came that year (1849) on Mar.4. 
Sunday. President Taylor was to be inaugu- 
rated on the 5th, and Congress had no legal 
existence after the session of Saturday, the 3d, 
should end. Unless this appropriation bill 
passed, the wheels of government would stop;- 
yet midnight came and the two houses still dis- 
ao;reed as to these foreio-n amendments. Mr. 
Cass said the term of the session was ended ; 
he could not vote on any motion. Mr. Web- 
ster insisted that the legislative day terminated 
only with the adjournment of the day's session, 
without regard to clocks. 

Mr. Foote rasped and raved. He denied the 
right of the body to take any further action. 
About four o'clock Sunday morning he pro- 
tested that nothing was in order ; that the chair 
could not put a question, because the body did 
not exist. When he made a motion, he said it 
was not made in the Senate of the United States, 
but in a town meeting, four hours after the term 
of several senators had expired. Occasionally 
he was sharply rebuked by some earnest man 



260 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

cnAP. wlio could keep silence no longer. Some- 
times his brother senators hissed and groaned 

1840. at him. Oftener they bit their lips and mut- 
tered their disgust ; but checked themselves 
even in that, lest it should provoke new delays 
and fresh obstacles. In the course of the night 
Mr. Cameron and Mr, Berrian were nearly be- 
trayed into a personal collision. 

Jefferson Davis said, strike out of the bill all 
concerning California, and save the appropria- 
tions. Mr. Douglas preferred to lose the appro- 
priation bill and save California. Finally, the 
Senate receded from its amendments (which the 
House would only agree to on condition that 
other amendments were added), and the appro- 
priation bill passed wdth but seven dissenting 
votes — Mr. Douo:las votino; with the Qioes. In- 
stantly a House bill, which Mr. Dix had in the 
morning reported, was called up and passed, 
and the two houses, after a terribly stormy all- 
night session, adjourned at seven o'clock Sunday 
morning, March 4th. 

This Sunday-morning bill extended the reve- 
nue laws of the United States over all the terri- 
tory ceded by the treaty of peace with Mexico. 
It made San Francisco a port of entry, and San 
Diego, Monterey, and a point near the junction 
of the rivers Gila and Colorado ports of de- 
livery. It authorized the President to appoint 
a collector of customs, and that collector to ap- 



THE REVENUE LAWS EXTENDED. 261 

point tliree deputies. It provided amply for chap. 
obtaining revenue from California, but did not _^^_, 
even promise at some future day tlie govern- i849. 
ment tliat she coveted. 

It imposed no new burdens on the people, 
but it lesralized the course that Governor Mason 
was already pursuing ; for, on hearing of the 
treaty of peace, the governor had taken the re- 
sponsibility of collecting the revenues under the 
tariff of 1846. His collections had been with- 
out law, yet as there were laws forbidding 
goods to be landed until the duties were paid, 
and as the goods were demanded, he assumed 
that it was his plain duty to encourage the 
landing of the goods, and raise a revenue from 
them. 



202 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORTTIA. 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. 

The Californians were not surprised at tlie 
failure of Congress to give them a government. 
I84'j. In anticipation of sucli an issue, they had called 
public meetings at San Jose, San Francisco, 
Sonoma, and Monterey, and discussed their 
position. They had gone so far as to set the 
day for the election of delegates to a constitu- 
tional convention, but they had neglected such 
a concert of action as insures success. 

When, however, Brigadier-General Bennett 
Riley (who succeeded General Persifer S. Smith, 
the successor of Mason as governor) learned 
positively that Congress had adjourned and 
done nothing, he issued a proclamation l)y the 
advice, he said, of the President and Secretaries 
of State and of War, which was at once a call 
for a convention, and an official exposition of 
the Administration's theory of the anomalous 
relations of California and the Union. He 
strove to correct the prevailing impression that 
California was held under a military govern- 



THE CONSTITUTIOIS^AL CONVEIST^IOK. 268 

ment. That was ended with the war. What chap, 
remained was the civil government recognized 
by the existing laws of California. Those laws i849. 
vested the government of the countiy in a gov- 
ernor appointed by the supreme goverament, 
or, in default of such appointment, the office was 
vested in the commanding military officer of 
the department, d secretary, a departmental or 
territorial legislature, a superior court with, 
four judges, a prefect and sub-prefect and a 
judge^ of the first instance for each disti'ict, 
alcaldes, local justices of the peace, and ayun- 
tamientos or town councils. Several of these 
offices were vacant ; he advised that they be 
filled by the people, and named the first of Au- 
gust as the day for the election. 

Moreover, he advised the election of delegates 
to a convention to adopt either a State or ter- 
ritorial constitution, which, if the people rati- 
fied, might be submitted to Congress for its ap- 
proval. The territory, for election purposes, he 
divided into ten districts. Every male inhabi- 
tant of the country, who was twenty-one years 
of age, was at liberty to vote in the district of 
his residence, and the delegates so elected were 
ordered to convene* at Monterey on the first of 
September. The whole number of delegates 
was fixed at thirty-seven, of whicli San Francis- 
co was to send five. In the rapidly-shifting 
state of society, and because no one could pre- 



264 THE HISTORr OF CALIFORNIA. 

tend to say how the population of the State 
was distributed, supernumerary delegates could 
be elected where it was deemed desirable, and 
the convention would exercise its discretion 
about admitting them. 

There was a little natural repugnance on the 
part of the people to accepting the dictation of 
their governor by military position ; but as 
they had once postponed the time that had 
been set for the election, and as the proclama- 
tion really commanded about what they de- 
sired, they consented, after relieving their minds 
by a public meeting or two, to obey it. 

The election came off on the appointed day, 
and a vote so alarmingly small was polled, that 
those interested hesitated whether to confess 
tliat they had greatly overrated the population, 
or that the masses cared very little about poli- 
tics. Still, the prophecy of Senator Dayton 
was not fulfilled, that they would have to lasso 
the members to get them to a constitutional 
convention. 

The convention met as ordered, at Monterey, 
on the 1st of September, 1849, assembling in 
Colton Hall, a large two-story stone building, 
named in honor of Walter Colton, author of 
Ship and SJiore, who, while alcalde of the 
place, had urged its erection with the proceeds 
of the sale of city lots. On Monday, the 3d, 
a quorum was found present, and the first ses- 



MEM13EKS OE THE COFVENTIOl!^. 265 

sion was opened with, prayer by the Kev. chap. 
S. H. WHley, a Presbyterian clergyman, wbo __^ 
Lad been sent out by the American Home Mis- i849. 
sionary Society in 1848, before the gold discov- ^^^' 
ery was bruited. They got early to worh, and 
had a lively session of six weeks. 

On the roll of meml^ers were the names of 
several who had been already identified with 
the history of the country, and who have since 
taken a large share in its fate. Among them 
were Captain H. W. Halleck, then Riley's " 
secretary of state, and since then known to all 
the nation as General-in-Chief of the United 
States Army ; John A. Sutter, the pioneer, who 
kept open house in the Sacramento Valley when 
the valle}^, now so busy, was a solitude ; John 
McDougal, the second governor of the State; 
Thomas O. Larkin, the first and last American 
consul in California, and before 1848 the con- 
fidential agent of the American State Depart- 
ment ; Charles T. Botts, afterwards editor of a 
Democratic paper published at Sacramento; 
Mariano de Guadalupe Vallejo, who had figured 
in the civil wars of the province, and had 
greeted with welcome the Americans at the be- 
ginning of their career in the land ; and Dr. 
Gwin, one of the first United States senators 
elected by the legislaturef of the organized 
State. 

Enough of the supernumerary delegates were 



266 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 

CHAP, admitted to make the Convention nmnber forty- 

XXI 

seven members. They represented seventeen 
1849. States of the Union, and five foreign countries. 
^^^^' Seven of them were native Californians ; ten 
had not been more than one year in the terri- 
tory ; and ten more had not been residents over 
two years. Dr. Gwin, who took a very impor- 
tant part in the proceedings, had been there but 
four months. Ei2;ht were merchants ; eleven 
fanners ; thirteen hiwyers ; one gave his profes- 
sion as " elegant leisure." Several of them did 
not understand the English language ; they ad- 
dressed the house through an interpreter, and 
important resolutions were interpreted to them. 

When the Convention was permanently or- 
ganized, Robert Semple, of Sonoma, was its 
president ; W. E. P. Ilartwell its interpreter ; 
William G. Marcy its secretary ; Caleb Lyon 
and J. G. Field its assistant secretaries ; and J. 
Ross Brown its official reporter. 

There was not at first entire unanimity as to 
the i)olicy of forming a State government, 
though the idea that the native Californians 
were generally opposed to it was denied on the 
floor. Dr. Gwin had taken the precaution to 
have some copies of the constitution of Iowa 
printed, and because that was the only docu- 
ment of the sort to which they had easy access 
at first, it seemed for a while as if Iowa were to 
furnish California with her organic law. But 



AWKWAED LACK OF BOOKS. 267 

as the session advanced, the constitution of New chap. 
York was oftener consulted, and when the con- 
vention finished its labors their perfected in- i849. 
strument resembled more that of the Empire ^^P*' 
State than of any other. When the preaml^le 
was under discussion, McDougal expressed his 
fervent desire to see a few lines of the dele- 
gates' own manufacture. Mr. McCarver said if 
they sat there much longer they would have a 
resolution in to annex New York, constitution 
and alL Botts complained that the standing 
committee of twenty (of which Gwin and 
Myron Norton were leading members) had 
gathered up a constitution out of all sorts of 
constitutions, without any regard to the circum- 
stances of California. 

Delegates complained that they felt the awk- 
wardness of having so few books of reference. 
Mr. Botts believed there were not fifty law-books 
in Monterey. Yet the debates exhibit a remark- 
able degree of ability. The speeches, as re- 
ported, were generally brief, pertinent, and ex- 
haustive of the topics discussed. Their free- 
dom from verbiage, repetition, and irrelevant 
matter would be surjorising, if we did not sus- 
pect that the reputation of the speech-makers 
was mercifully spared, and their credit en- 
hanced by the elegant and critical pen of the 
reporter. 

The first article of the constitution is entitled 



268 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

a " Declaration of Rio'hts." When this article 
was repoi'ted from the committee, it provided 
I84t). in o-eneral terms that no member of the State 
should, be disfranchised unless by the law of 
the land or the judgment of his peers. This 
was not up to the standard of public sentiment. 
It was linally amended to declare that " all men 
are, by nature, free and independent, and have 
certain inalienable rights, among which arc 
those of enjoying and defending life and lib- 
erty." Lest that should be at some future day 
construed into a "glittering generality," Mr. 
Shannon, an Irishman by birth, who had emi- 
grated three vears before from New York, 
moved, as an additional section to the article, 
the following : " Neither slavery nor involun- 
tary servitude, unless for the punishment of 
crime, shall ever be tolerated in this State." 

Considering how the territory of California 
was acquired by the United States; consider- 
ing the composition of the Convention, and the 
antecedents of some of its prominent members, 
this ou2;ht to have raised a sjreat storm. But 
it did not ; the text which never failed before 
to produce a debate, failed uttei'ly here. There 
was a little talk about what part of the con- 
stitution to put that provision in, and then the 
section was adopted in committee of the whole 
unanimously. This was done on the tenth day 
after the Convention assembled, which shows 



SLAVERY PROHIBITED FOREVER. 269 

that tlie action was suggested by the well-un- chap. 
derstood sentiment of the people, and not bred 
of the policy developed within the Convention i849. 
itself. 

After so handsome an achievement in the 
interest of freedom, accomplished with scarce a 
struggle, it was quite natural that the Conven- 
tion, in the good nature that follows victory, 
should be almost betrayed into an action that 
would have reflected very seriously upon its 
sagacity. A desperate effort was made to pro- 
hibit the emio-ration of free nem-oes into the 
State. This was strenuously advocated by Mr. 
McCarver, a Kentuckian ; Mr. Semple, also from 
Kentucky by the way of Missouri ; Di-. Wozen- 
craft, from Ohio, '^;^» Louisiana; Mr. Tefft, from 
New York, and Mr. Steuart, from Maryland. 
They argued that free negroes were bad mem- 
bers of society, and unless they were strictly 
prohibited from entering the State, California 
would be overrun with them, and their labor 
be brought into competition with white labor 
in the mines. They said the owners of slaves 
had already discovered that, by bringing their 
negroes here and freeing them under indentures, 
binding them to dig gold for a while, they could 
get as much profit out of them in three years 
as during a life-time on the 23lantations, besides 
saving the expense of taking care of them when 
old and valueless as property. 



270 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. Mr. Dimmick, of New York, I'eplied, that 

, _^ few masters could afford to bring their slaves 

1849. here, especially in view of the extreme proba- 
bility that they would run away the day they 
set foot on California free soil. 

Mr. Shannon, of New York, said the Slave 
States might vei'y properly prohibit free negroes 
from crossing their borders, for their presence 
was injurious to the slave system ; but the Free 
States had no excuse for such illiberality, and 
only one of them, Illinois, had j^ractised it. 
There, the Convention refused to put tlie prohibi- 
tory clause into the constitution; but leaving it 
to the people, they, by a popular vote, insert- 
ed it. He contended, moreover, that the free 
blacks are not a bad people, and if this illiberal 
provision should be inserted, it would damage 
the prospects of the constitution in Congress. 

Mr. Gill)ert, from New York, though con- 
fessing to a fashionable degree of repugnance to 
the blacks, opposed the prohibition. He held 
that color was not a crime. The free negro, in 
the spirit and meaning of the Constitution of 
the United States, was a citizen, and that Con- 
stitution provides that the citizens of each State 
shall be entitled to all the privileges and im- 
munities of the several States. To insert the 
proposed section would jeoj^ardize the success 
of all their labors. 

This debate occurred in committee of the 



on NEGEO HVIxMIGEATIOlSr. 271 

whole, nine days after tlie unanimous adoption chap. 

of tlie section excluding slavery forever from , ^_^ 

the State. When the vote was taken the pro- 1849. 
•posed section was adopted. It was as fol- 
lows: "The Legislature shall, at its lirst session^ 
pass such laws as will effectually prohibit free 
persons of color from immigrating to, and set- 
tling in this State, and to effectually prevent the 
owners of slaves from brino-ins; them into this 
State for the purpose of setting them free." 

But that dark stigma was not to be indelible. 
A fortnight afterward the subject came up 
again, the question being on the adoption of 
the report of the committee of the whole. Mr. 
Norton opposed the prohibitory clause on con- 
stitutional grounds. He alleged that when 
Missouri was admitted to the Union it was 
with the express, condition imposed by Con- 
gress, that she should strike out a similar clause 
from her constitution. The subject was dis- 
cussed again freely, and when the question was 
taken the whole- section was rejected, by ai/e-s 8, 
7ioe-9 31. 

But the negro question was not quite yet 
disposed of. It reaj)peared as the principal 
feature of the long discussion concerning the 
boundaries of the State. That California should 
1)6 declared to be bounded on the west by the 
ocean, on the north by Oregon, and on the 
south by Mexico, was acceded to so soon as 



272 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, proposed. But wliere should the eastern line 
be drawn ? The committee had reported in 

1849. favor of placing it on the one hundred and six- 
teenth parallel of longitude. This would have 
included within California the whole of mod- 
ern Nevada. Mr. McDougal proposed the one 
liundred and fiftli parallel of longitude, which 
would have taken in portions of Kansas and 
Nebraska. Mr. Semple preferred to make the 
Sierra Nevada the eastern boundary. Dr. 
Gwiu wanted to follow the line of separation 
between California and New Mexico, as laid 
down on Fremont's map, which woukl include 
the Mormon settlements about Salt Lake. 
Captain Ilalleck favored that, with a proviso 
authoiizing the legislature to assent to a pro- 
position, if Congress should make one, for the 
erection of all east of the Sierras into either a 
Territory or a separate State. Mr. Shannon 
proposed nearly the boundaries that were 
finally adopted. He objected to all schemes or 
proposals that left the territorial question open, 
for that left the slavery question open. The 
usual arguments for and against a large State 
were urged and answered. The dignity of 
imperial dimensions, the pride of size, the fiict 
that there was no neighbor on the east to ob- 
ject to the widest scope proposed, the human- 
ity of extending State law over the deserts 
which were beginning to be populous along 



July. 



TUE SLAVERY QUESTION. 2*73 

certain lines of approacli and which Oongi'ess chap. 
had failed to shield with any law, the doctrine 
that the California of Mexico included all and i849. 
more than the committee recommended, and 
that it was not becoming for the convention, 
unasked, to dismember or reject any portion 
of her — these were the considerations urged 
at first for making the State embrace all 
the area possible. On the other hand, it was 
ai'gued that it was wasting political power to 
give to so vast a territory no more United 
States senators than little Delaware is entitled 
to ; the desert east of the Sierras was worth no 
State's possessing ; the expense of sustaining a 
State government over so broad a field would 
be burdensome ; to take in Utah would be 
simply to stipulate for a Mormon trouble ; to 
be modest would look well in Congress, and 
cost the sacrifice of not an acre that was really 
worth ownino*. Of course no one dreamed then 

o 

that within twenty years the desert east of the | 
Sierras would be ringing with the clatter of ^ 
mills, populous with permanent inhabitants, 
and famous the world over for the products of 
its mines. 

But the specious arguments that men ad- 
vance are seldom the ones that govern their 
votes in deliberative bodies. The boundary 
question was settled by considerations connect- 
ed with slavery. One party said, we have pro- 
is 



274 TliE IIISTOFwY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, liibited slavery from our State; now, for hu- 
^_^ inanity's sake, let us make the State as large as 
1849. possible. Do you suppose, asked the Chivalry, 
that the South is so blind as not to see that ? 
and will they let you in at all, when for such a 
purpose you ask so much ? Ask modestly, 
said a third party, and ask for a fixed, unalter- 
able line, and Congress will not be tempted to 
debate your admission all next term. Mr. Sem- 
ple quoted T. Butler King, as begging very 
emphatically, " Leave us no territory to legis- 
late upon in Congress." Mr. Shannon under- 
stood it now — the Cabinet was divided about 
the Wilmot Proviso, and the President had sent 
out T. Butler Kinof to induce the convention to 
put all the loose territory west of the Rocky 
Mountains within California, and take that bone 
of contention, the "Wilmot Proviso," out of 
Congress. 

Whether that was literally true or not, there 
I is no doubt that the most comprehensive bound- 
I aries were advocated, with the hope that the 
I action of the convention would be taken as 
final, and relieve the Administration of a troub- 
lesome question that it did not care to en- 
counter. In committee of the whole this policy 
prevailed, and the Gwin-Halleck proposition 
was adopted by ayes 19, noes 4. 

That did not end the discussion, however, 
which was resumed in the House and main- 



THE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 275 

tained witli enemy, amendment after amend- chap. 

XXI 

ment being voted down. When, at last, three ,_^„^ 
days before tlie Convention adjourned, the re- 1849. 
port of the committee of the w^hole was con- 
curred in by ayes 29 to noes 22, there was 
great confusion and excitement. Mr. McCarver 
moved to adjourn sine die — they had done mis- 
chief enough. " Your constitution is gone — ^is 
gone ! " exclaimed Mr. Snyder. " I will sign it 
under protest." "All is lost," and cries of 
"Order," rang through the hall. Afterwards 
the matter was reconsidered, and, as a compro- 
mise, the line accepted which forms the present 
eastern boundary — a line drawn north and 
south from the forty-second to the thirty-ninth 
parallel on the one hundred and twentieth de- 
gree of longitude, thence southeasterly to the 
Colorado ; thence along the channel of that 
river to the Mexican line. This left the Mor- 
mons out, took in all that was supposed to be 
of any earthly value of the territory that Mex- 
ico ever treated as California, and gave to the 
new State an area of one hundred and eighty- 
eight thousand nine hundred and eighty-one 
square miles. 

Other topics gently exercised the Conventioij, 
but no other one excited it. The freedom of 
the press was guarded by a provision that in 
criminal prosecutions for libel, the truth of the 
alleged libel might be pleaded, and if good mo- 



276 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, tives for the publication appeared, the accused 
should be acquitted. The right of suffrage was 
1849. extended to white male citizens of the United 
States, and to white male citizens of Mexico, 
who elected to become citizens of the United 
States under the treaty of peace. The Legisla- 
ture was prohibited from granting divorces. 

Lotteries were prohibited. Mr. Price believed 
lotteries a necessaiy evil ; they could be made 
to defray the expenses of the Legislature until a 
system of taxes were devised. He contended 
that the people of California were essentially a 
gambling people. Every public house had its 
monte and faro tables licensed by law, where 
there was a law. Lotteries were less offensive 
to public morals ; he would tax them for the 
sake of revenue. Mr. Halleck reminded gentle- 
men of the famous case of Yates and Mclntyre, 
which involved not only many individuals in 
ruin, but so embarrassed the finances of New 
York State that the convention of 1846 felt 
called on to prohi])it lotteries. Mr. Dimmick 
denied the truth of Mr. Price's charge, that 
California was a community of gamblers. It 
was not applicable to his constituency, the 
people of San Jose. The prohibition was not 
seriously contested further. 

Fighting a duel, or sending or ascepting a 
challenge, or acting as a second in a duel, after 
the adoption of the Constitution, made the 



MORAL AND EDQCAITONAL PEO VISIONS. 277 

party so offending ineligible to any office of chap. 
profit, and disfranchised him. Dr. Gwin earn- 
estly contended for this clause. He pleaded 1849. 
his observation in Mississippi and Tennessee 
in evidence that this remnant of the dark a^-es, 
which the greatest cowards cling to, can be put 
down by law. 

Provision was ordered for a system of com- 
mon schools, to be supported in every district 
for three months in the year ; but they were not 
required to be absolutely free. The rights of 
women to a separate property were recognized. 
Banks of circulation were forbidden, and, after 
a long discussion, hard money was made the ex- 
clusive currency. Mr. Botts struggled hard to 
make the State treasury a bank of deposit of 
gold and silver, with power to issue certificates 
of deposit, " You want a mint," said he, " but 
you cannot have one — not in three years ; nor 
at all — the expense of labor required to conduct 
it would be too great in this country ;" in which 
prediction, happily, he made a mistake. 
• They fixed the capital at San Jose ; but they 
left it optional for the Legislature, by a two- 
thirds vote of each house, to remove it at any 
time. 

The expenses of the Convention, General Riley 
gave them to understand, that he would take 
care of, out of the proceeds of the anomalously 
collected revenues. They allowed to their seo 



278 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOElSnA. 

CHAP, retaiy twenty-eiglit dollars per diem / to the 
1849. assistant secretaries and engrossing clerk they 
' — ^ — ' paid twenty-three dollars each, daily ; to the 
copying clerk, sixteen dollars ; to the door- 
keeper, twelve dollars. The sessions were 
opened with prayer, either by the Rev. Mr. 
Willey, Presbyterian, or the E-ev. Father Ra- 
mirez, Catholic ; for this, sixteen dollars a day 
was paid. The reporter, J. Ross Browne, en- 
gaged to deliver a certain number of printed 
copies of the proceedings ; he was paid ten 
thousand dollars. These seem like liberal sala- 
aries — heavy ones, they all confessed when they 
lugged them off at the close of the session, paid 
mostly in silver coin ; but they were not out of 
proportion to the wages that men were making 
in the field, the shop, and the counting-room. 

Only one design for a great seal of state 
and coat of arms was offered to the committee 
that took that matter in charge. It was pre- 
sented by Caleb Lyon, of Lyonsdale, as wdth 
harmless affectation the eccentric first assistant 
secretary loved to designate himself. After it 
was accepted, some members claimed the original 
design of it for Major Garnett, who, however, 
had expressed to Mr. Lyon a desire that he 
alone should be known as its author. Mr. 
Lyon was authorized to have it engraved, and 
to furnish a press and necessary appendages, 
and the Convention paid him one thousand dol- 



THE SEAL OF STATE. 279 

lars for it. The seal is thus explained by its chap. 

, . ± ^ XXT. 

designer : — w-v— ' 

" Around the bend of the ring are represented i849. 
thirty-one stars, being the number of the States 
of which the Union will consist upon the ad- 
mission of California. The foreground figure 
represents the goddess Minerva, having sprung 
full grown from the brain of Jupiter. She is 
introduced as a type of the political birth of 
the State of California, without having gone 
through the probation of a Territory. At her 
feet crouches a grizzly bear, feeding upon the 
clusters from a grape-vine, emblematic of the 
peculiar characteristics of the country. A 
miner is en2:aged, with his rocker and bowl at 
his side, illustrating the golden wealth of the 
Sacramento, upon whose waters are seen ship 
ping, typical of commercial greatness ; and the 
snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada make up 
the background, while above is the (rreek mot- 
to, ' Eureka ' (I have found), applying either 
to the jmnciple involved in the admission 
of the State, or the success of the miner at 
work." 

Dr. Wozencraft tried to have the gold-digger 
and the bear struck out ; and General Vallejo 
wanted the bear removed, or else fastened by a 
lasso in the hands of a vaquero; but the original 
suited the majority, and it was not altered. 
The Convention had been in session six weeks. 



280 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. Though members had indulged in some person- 
alities, had always very freely criticised each 

1840. other, and once Mr. TefFt and Mr. Jones had 
mutually ras]3ed each other until the experts 
in affairs of honor interfered and. gently forced 
them to make the proper apologies inside the 
House, harmony had generally prevailed, and 
their work was crowned with good feeling. 
They had met as strangers ; they parted as 
friends. Of all parties, they had, to an aston- 
ishing degree, ignored party. Representing all 
sections of the Union, they had, to a wonderful 
extent, laid aside sectional prejudice?, and given 
to the new State a constitution fully up to the 
standard of the times, and defaced with but 
few of those innovations (like the popularly 
elected judiciary) which have crowded them- 
selves in among the improvements of the age, 
and, for a season, passed for such. 

On Saturday, October 13th, the Convention 

Oct. 13. adopted a brief address to the people, thanked 
General Eiley for his courtesy, and voted that 
he ousfht to have ten thousand dollars a vear 
for his salary while governor ; named six thou- 
sand dollars as a proper salary for Captain 
Halleck, as secretary of state ; paid Lieuten- 
ant Hamilton, for ensrrossins: the Constitution on 
parchment, five hundred dollars ; signed the en- 
grossed copy, Colton Hall meanwhile trembling 
and the hills around the bay echoing the salute 



FINAL adjotjunment. 281 

of tLIrty-one sfuns fired from the fort, and ad- chap. 

XXL 

journed sine die. •^-^-^-^ 

The members then went in a body to call on 1849. 
General Eiley at his house. Captain Sutter 
expressed the Convention's thanks for his aid in 
creating a State government. General Kiley 
replied that he never made a speech in his life ; 
but it was a prouder day than v/hen his soldiers 
cheered him on the field of Contreras. He 
handsomely complimented the people who se- 
lected such able delegates. The members 
gracefully turned the compliment back with 
three cheers for the Governor of California, and 
three more for " the gallant soldier worthy of 
his country's glory." " I have but one thing 
more to add," said the general, weathering the 
cheers. "My success in the afiairs of California 
is mainly owing to the efficient aid rendered me 
by Captain Halleck, the secretary of state. 
He has stood by me in all emergencies ; to him 
I have always appealed when at a loss myself, 
and he has never failed me." Monterey was 
gay with American flags that day, and the few 
people throughout the State, who had given 
any attention to ]3ublic afijiirs, were happy over 
a good job completed. 

It required swift Avork to publish the Consti- 
tution in English and Spanish, and spread it 
over so broad a territory in those roadless days, 
so that it could be fairly canvassed in town and 



282 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOrvIHA. 

CHAP, country, on the randies of the valleys, and in 

■^'^^' tlie mining camps far up the mountain-sides, by 

1849. the 13th of November, which day General Riley 

Nov.13 jj^^i appointed for the election to ratify or reject 

it, and to choose the Cona-ressmen and State 

officers that it called for. Whether it was well 

or illy done, appearances were kept ui^, and on 

the day set the election came off. 

The people adopted the Constitution by a 
vote of twelve thousand and sixty-four for it, 
to eight hundred and eleven against it ; there 
beino;, besides, over twelve hundred ballots that 
were treated as blanks, because of an informal- 
ity in the printing. Peter H. Burnett was 
chosen governor, getting six thousand seven 
hundred and sixteen votes, while his com- 
petitors, W. Scott Sherwood, received three 
thousand one hundred and eighty-eight; J. 
W. Geary, one thousand four hundred and 
seventy-five; John A. Sutter, two thousand 
two hundred and one ; and William M. Stewart, 
six hundred and nineteen. John McDougal 
was elected lieutenant-governor ; and George 
W. Wright and Edward Gilbert, getting be- 
tween five thousand and six thousand votes 
each, were elected to Congress. 

These were small figures for a State claiming, 
six weeks later, to have one hundred and seven 
thousand inhabitants. Those most interested 
felt ashamed of the returns, and were thankful 



A EAINY ELECTIOIS^-DAY. 283 

that they could plead a drenching rain and chap. 
unusual storm upon election-day throughout 

the country. The day had been set early, in 1849. 

hopes to anticipate the rainy season, but not ^^' 
early enough by a week, as the event showed. 



284 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XXIL 

THE FIRST STATE LEGISLATURE. 

CHAP. Theee was a stroncrer reason than that, how- 



XXII. 



j^^^ ^^^^^^ v^c^^ ^xxc*v, 



ever, in the fact that the vast majority looked 
1849. upon politics as a matter of small account, in 
the midst of such a harvest of gold, especially 
as they expected to leturn soon to their old 
homes, taking their fortunes with them, and 
leaving the State and its politics for others of 
different tastes and more modest expectations, 
to regulate. 

A month after election, the first Legislature 
met at San Jose. The Senate consisted of six- 
teen members, of whom San Francisco sent two, 
and the Sacramento and San Joaquin districts 
four each. The Assembly had thirty-six members. 
Their pay was sixteen dollars a day, and sixteen 
dollars mileage for every twenty miles trav- 
elled in going to or returning from the capital. 

Governor Riley kept the promise he had 
made (conditioned upon receiving no orders to 
the contrary from Washington), surrendered 
the administration of civil aftairsinto the hands 
of Governor Burnett, and turned over to the 



THE FIRST LEGISLATURE. 285 

new government tlie books, papers, and archives chap. 
of the territory. f^ 

In his message, Governor Burnett advised 1849. 
that without a doubt they had a right to pro- 
ceed at once to the business of les^islation. 
Missouri and Michigan had started on their 
State career long before they were admitted to 
the Union, and their right had not been se- 
riously questioned. The Legislature never hesi^ 
tated a moment iu adopting the course recom- 
mended. On the sixth day of the session they 
went into joint convention for the election of 
two United States senators. On the first call 
of the roll Jolm C. Fremont received twenty- 
nine votes, and was elected. On the third, 
William M. Gwiu received twenty-four votes, 
and he was elected, his unsuccessful compet- 
itors being H. W. Halleck, who had eighteen 
votes, and T. J. Henley, T. Butler King, and J. 
W. Geary dividing between them the remain- 
der. 

The Leo^islature continued in session four i850. 
months. The wits of the day called it " The 
Legislature of a Thousand Drinks." The appel- 
lation may have been fairly won. Members, 
whose families were the width of a continent 
away, found it a thirstier land than it ever has 
been since. But if they drank well, they 
worked well too. They enacted one hundred 
and forty laws, most of which were of a general 



286 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, and important character, thouf^h some were 

XXII • 

pretty nearly transcripts of tlie laws of other 
1850. States, that have needed very thorough revision 
since to suit them to the peculiar wants of 
California, 

They created the offices required by the Con- 
stitution. They established a judiciary, and re- 
quired the Supreme Court, after its first two 
reo^ular terms, which were to be held in San 
Francisco, to sit at the seat of government. To 
each of the district judges they appointed a 
salary of seventy-five hundred dollars a year; 
to the county judges, from one thousand to six 
thousand. They fixed the legal rate of interest 
at ten per cent, per annum, in case no express 
contract were made ; but if it were agreed to 
beforehand, any rate of interest became legal, 
and the interest, on failure to pay it promptly, 
could be added to the principal, and itself draw 
interest — a law which was early found to tend 
to the ruin both of borrowers and lenders. 
They required foreigners not naturalized to 
pay a license before being pJlowed to work 
the mines — a policy which, on trial, failed to 
raise any considerable revenue, and met with 
serious opposition in the mining districts. 

They would not prohibit the immigration of 
people of color into the State, but they so far 
catered to the prejudices of the Chivalry, as to 
bar from the courts the testimony of any black, 



THE FIRST LEGISLATURE. 287 

mulatto, or Indian, either for or ao;ainst a white chap. 

. . , ? • . XXII 

man — a piece of unjust and foolisli legislation, ^_^_ 
which it took thirteen years to erase from the i850. 
statute-book. They made some meagre provi- 
sion for common schools, and authorized the 
Supreme Court to incorporate colleges when- 
ever they could show an endowment of twenty 
thousand dollars. For murder, and nothing 
else, they established the death penalty. To 
send or accept a challenge to a duel they de- 
clared a crime, and affixed as a penalty impris- 
onment for from one to three years, and a fine 
not to exceed one thousand dollars. They 
adopted the common law, so far as it was not 
repugnant to the Constitution of the State or 
United States, and showed their confidence that 
nothing of importance was left undone, by abol- 
ishing, with a few exceptions, all laws then in 
force but those of their own enactment. 

Early in January two delegates appeared at 
San Jose with a curious petition, purporting to 
come from the people of the *' new State of 
Deseret." The residents in the Great Salt 
Lake basin had, in March, 1849, met in conven- 
tion and formed a State Constitution, which 
afterwards was approved by the popular vote. 
But, hearing that California was about to hold 
a convention, they chose two delegates to attend 
it, and urge that Deseret be included for a time 
within California. The delegates, arriving, 



288 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, found that the Convention had adjourned. 
xxir. 'Yhej then modestly asked California to call 
1850. another convention, throw aside its adoj^ted con- 
stitution, and ao^ree on boundaries which should 
embrace temporarily the Great Basin. Tliis 
done, they would unite in recommending Con- 
gress to reject without discussion or debate both 
the State constitutions already adopted. They 
professed to have authority to vote against per- 
mitting slavery, and urged that only in this 
way could the slavery question in the territo- 
ries be set at rest ; for Congress, owing to the 
division of parties, could not handle it. Re- 
ject these terms, and Deseret, " with her twenty 
thousand inhabitants, and thirty thousand more 
on the way to settle within her borders," would 
insist before Congress upon her separate ad- 
mission, with boundaries stretching fi-om the 
Rocky Mountains to the Sierras, and a wide 
strip from the southern end of California, to 
give her access to the Pacific. Of course, Gov- 
ernor Burnett recommended the Legislature not 
to accede to the proposition, and it was soon 
forgotten. 

They authorized the incorporation of towns 
out of any settlement containing over two hun- 
dred people, and not embracing more than 
three square miles ; and the incorporation as 
cities, of places containing two thousand j^teople. 
They also, by special act, in spite of one veto 



THE CITY OF SAN FEANCISCO. 289 

of the Governor, who insisted that special chap. 

• XXII 

legislation was not needed for the purpose, m- ^_,^^_ 
corporated nine cities — San Francisco, Sacra- isso. 
mento, San Jose, Monterey, Los Angeles, San 
Diego, Benicia, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara. 

San Francisco was at tliat time a brisk, noisy, Ap'l 15 
enterprising place, of from twenty thousand to 
forty thousand inhabitants, full of troubles 
about land, titles, much given to mass meetings 
and other American ways ; with three daily 
papers — the Alta, Journal of Commerce^ and 
Pacific Heivs — which advertised seven places 
of worship open every Sunday, and two thea- 
tres ; with a 23rison brig ; with steamers on the 
bay running to Sacramento, and charging " re- 
duced rates," namely, twenty dollars to carry 
a passenger there, or thirty-five to take him to 
Yuba or Marysville; running to Alviso also, 
which town Governor Burnett and Mr. Hoppy 
were just starting, at the southern extremity of 
the bay, and charging for passage through to 
San Jose thirty-five dollars ; and running wher- 
ever else freight or passage-money offered in- 
ducements enough to tempt them. 

The city had achieved most of its import- 
ance vv^ithin two years. Though the Mission 
Dolores was indeed founded in 1776, there was 
no sign of settlement on the beach of Yerba 
Buena Cove before 1835, when Captain W. A. i835. 
Eiohardson, who had received the appointment 

19 



290 THE HISTORY OP CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, of master of the harbor, put up the first dwell- 

_^_, ing, a rude structure with a sail-cloth roof. On 

1S36. the 4th of July, 1836, Jacob P. Leese finished 
a frame house adjoining Richardson's (its site 
was the southwest corner of Clay and Dupont 
streets, where the St. Francis Hotel yet stands) 
in time for a house-warming and celeln-ation of 
Independence Day by some sixty guests invited 
from the first families in all the region. On the 

1838. 15th of April, 1838, the first child was born in 
Yei'ba Buena, Rosalie Leese, whose father was 
the pioneer American merchant, and her mother 
a sister of General Vallejo. Leese erected, as 
the requirements of trade required it, a store 
on the beach, where now is the crossing of Com- 
mercial and Montgomery Streets ; for the water- 
front, which is now thrust six blocks to the east- 
ward, at that time swept in on the line of 
Washington Street as far as Montgomery, and 
crossed Market Street at the intersection of Bat- 

1830. tery and First Streets. Li 1839, Governor Al- 
varado ordered a survey of the plain and cove ; 
and Captain Juan Vioget made the survey, 
which included the re^-ion between Pacific and 
Sacramento, Dupont and Montgomery streets. 

1841. In 1841, Leese transferred his property to the 
liud son's Bay Company, and removed to So- 
noma. That company did most of the business 

1S46. of the place till 1846, when it sold out and 
left. 



GEOWTH OF SAN FEANCISCO. 291 

The American conquest quickened a new chap. 
growth on the narrow, sandy plain that skirted 
the base of Telegraph, Rincon, and Russian i847. 
hills. In January, 1847, it had a population 
of three hundred and a weekly newspaper. In 
April following, it contained seventy-nine build- 
ings, of which twenty-six were adobe, thirty-one 
frame, and the rest shanties. In June, with a 
population of four hundred, it boasted its second 
weekly paper. On the 30th of January it dropped 
its old name, and took a new and less fragrant 
one. On the 20tli of July, the lots between 
high and low water marks, from Fort Montgom- 
ery (Clark's Point) to Rincon Point, were sold 
at auction under orders of General Kearny 
and Alcalde Bryant. The first steamboat, an 
importation from Sitka, made its trial trip on 
the bay November 15th. 

By tlie middle of March, 1848, San Francisco 1848. 
had two hundred houses and eig-ht hundred and 
fifty people. On the 3d of April the first pub- 
lic school was opened — a delay that would have 
been a reproach if the population had not been 
to so great a degree an adult one. In May and 
June came the rush to the interior which, fol- 
lowed the announcement of the gold discovery, 
when the shipping was deserted, stores shut 
up, shops abandoned, papers stopped, because 
of the hegira to the mines. By November the 
gold-hiunters were in good part back again, 



292 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEIXIA. 

CHAP, business resumed, school reopened, the presses 
,__^_ running again ; and the Rev. J. D. Hunt (chosen 

1848. " Protestant chaplain," at a yearly salary of 
twenty-five liunclred dollars, to be raised by sub- 
scription) had begun a regular Sunday service 
in the school-house on Portsmouth Square. The 
year showed a million dollars worth of goods 
imported, and as much in value of coin, but 
two millions of gold-dust had been exported. 

On New Year's Day of 1849, San Francisco 

1849. claimed to have a population of two thousand, 
and rejoiced in her new Broadway wharf. The 
two weeklies on the 4th merged into the Alta Cal- 
if OJ^nia. The people had showed some little in- 
terest in a convention scheme, but far more in 
the election of town councils or ayuntamientos, 
of which at one time they had three in ex- 
istence, each claiming to be exclusively the 
legal one. On the last day of February the 
pioneer of the ocean steamships, the Cali- 
fornia, arrived from New York, with General 
Persifer F. Smith on board, to take command 
of the Pacific department. A month later 
the steamship Oregon arrived from New York 
with three hundred and fifty passengers, in- 
cluding Colonel Geary, who had a commission 
to act as postmaster for the city and postal 
agent for the coast. On the 13th of April, 
General Bennett Kiley came, relieving Smith 
of the military command, and charged, also, to 



SHOET WORK WITH THE HOUNDS. 



293 



administer civil affairs. By the end of July ciiAP. 

•^ . XXII. 

there were two hundred square-rigged vessels 
in the harbor. 

This summer the affair of "the Hounds" 
came off. A gang of desperadoes, organized 
originally, as they professed, for mutual protec- 
tion in the mining disti'icts, against the cheap 
labor of foreigners of Spanish extraction, began 
to practise their outrages openly. They had 
their head-quarters and their officers, and 
claimed to be " regulators " of society. On the 
slightest pretence they would tear down the 
tents of the Chilians, rob them of their valua- 
bles, and divide among themselves the plunder. 
On one of their expeditions a youth, who hap- 
pened to be in their company, was fatally 
wounded by a foreigner. On Sunday, the 15th 
of July, returning from an excursion to Con- 
tra Costa, they paraded the streets openly, and 
proceeding to the Chilian quarter, tore down 
tents, bccit their occupants, jDlundered them, 
and repeatedly fired into their midst. Next 
day, when the news spread through the town, 
the public was warm with indignation. They 
waited on the alcalde, and urged him to take 
steps to punish the oft'enders. The alcalde, 
by proclamation, summoned a public meeting, 
which assembled at three o'clock on Ports- 
mouth Square. Samuel Brannan addressed the 
crowd. A generous subscription was made 



294 THE HISTORY OF CvVLIFOEKIA. 

CHAP, for tlie relief of the sufferers, and two hundred 
^^^^- and thirty persons enrolled themselves as spe- 
1819. cial constables. They were soon provided with 
muskets, and had elected a commander and six 
captains. Before night twenty of the rioters 
had been arrested and lodged for safe keeping 
on board the United States ship Warren. At 
another meeting on the square, Dr. Gwin and 
James C. Ward were chosen judges, to be asso- 
ciated with Alcal de Leavenworth for the trial 
of the rioters ; Horace Hawes was appointed 
district attorney, and Hall McAllister his asso- 
ciate. On Tuesday, twenty-four citizens, act- 
ing as a grand-jury, found a true bill against 
Samuel Roberts and nineteen other " Hounds," 
on various charges. On Wednesday the trials 
began, and were conducted in all calmness, but 
with dispatch. Francis J. Lippett and Frank 
Turk assisted Hawes and McAllister as counsel 
for the people, and P. Barry and Myron Norton 
defended the accused. Twelve jurors, among 
whom were John Sime and Frederick Tesch- 
macker, found ten of the accused guilty of one 
or all of the counts of the indictment, and the 
convicted were sentenced to different terms of 
imprisonment. These sentences were never en- 
forced ; but the " Hounds " were broken up, and 
those who had been foremost in the gang quit 
the city. 

On the 5th of August the first Protestant 



FIRST DEMOCRATIC MEETING. 295 

clmrcli ill California — tlie property of tlie First chap. 
Baptist Society — was dedicated. w.^-^ 

In October, steamers began to make regular i849. 
trips to Sacramento. The Pioneer^ a little iron 
vessel brought out piecemeal from Boston ; the 
Mint^ also of iron ; the propeller McKim, and 
soon the Senator^ went into that line. 

The first large Democratic meeting in Cali- 
fornia assembled October 25th on Portsmouth 
Square, " the plaza," Colonel Geary acting as 
president ; O. P. Sutton and Aunis Merrill 
being among the vice-presidents, and J. Ross 
Brown and John A. McGlynn figuring among 
the secretaries. On the 13th of November, 
amidst a heavy rain, the State Constitution was 
approved — two thousand and fifty-one voting 
for, and five against it, in San Francisco. 

By the end of the year there were twenty 
thousand people in town. The unfenced plaza, 
as we have said, was the place of general resort 
on great public occasions. There were between 
three and four hundred square-rigged vessels in 
the bay, very many of which, for lack of sailors, 
never went to sea again. The expenses of the 
local government were not great, for the streets 
were not yet improved, and for a while ample 
funds had been raised to defray them from the 
proceeds of the sale of water-lots or of uplands. 
Later, however, they had raised quite a reve- 
nue by licenses, which were required of almost 



296 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, evei'}^ trade and profession. They liad no 
,_1__ town-house, no safe jail, no adequate police, no 

1849. hospital, no public burying-ground. 

Collector Collier wrote to Secretary Mere- 
dith, November 13th, 1849: "I am perfectly 
astounded at the amount of business done at 
this (San Francisco) office.'" Six hundred and 
ninety-seven vessels had arrived within seven 
and a half months. Board, he said, was five 
dollars a day, without a room. A small 
room with a sinoie bed rented for one hun- 
dred and fifty dollars a month ; wood cost 
forty dollars a cord ; flour, forty dollars a 
barrel ; pork, sixty dollars. In lack of stores, 
nineteen vessels were employed as warehouses. 
Commercially, the port was already equal to 
Philadelphia ! 

Such was t he rude but promising town to 
which the first Legislature gave a city charter, 
which the people approved by vote, May 1st, 

1850. 1850. The charter extended the city limits on 
the west to a line parallel to Kearny Street, 
two miles from the plaza. The county had sep- 
arate boundaries, embracing what afterwards 
was made San Mateo County, and on the west, 
going some distance into the ocean. 

Sacramento was the legitimate successor of 
Sutter's " New Helvetia ;" the site of the new 
town being originally the eml)arcadero of the 
Swiss captain's settlement. The rush to the 



SACRAMENTO AND OTHER CITIES. 297 

mines had stimulated it into a promising trad- chap. 
ing-place. Here the miners landed from the 
boats in which they ascended the river, and i848. 
here the returning tide from the mountains 
first struck navigable water. In October, 1 848, 
there was advei^tised a sale of town lots in 
Sacramento— the name then first appearing as 
the designation of a settlement. In January, 
1849, the first frame house was built on the i849. 
bank of the river, and before that year ended, 
the settlement about the foit moved down. A 
school was started, but children were scarce, 
and it languished. By the spring of 1850, the i850. 
permanent pojDulation was twelve thousand. 
A grove of fine old buttonwoods shaded the 
j)lain and tempered the excessive heat of sum- 
mer. The Sierras, covered till late in the spring 
with snow, loomed up on the eastern horizon, 
and Mount Diablo, like a grand 23yramid, lifted 
its peak on the south. The site of the city, 
which at once promised to exceed in its growth 
all the inland cities of the State, was but fifteen 
feet above low- water mark. The settlers soon 
found what a mistake they had made concern- 
ing the grade, for before January of 1850 was 
passed, the place was flooded by the rise of the 
river. 

As to the other cities that year incorporated, 
it was natural to suppose that San Jose, in a pro- 
lific valley on the road to the great quicksilver 



298 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

(jyj^P mine, would grow rapidly; and that Monterey, 
^^11- Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and San Diego 
'^^^ would slowly, at least, justify the wdsdom of 
tlieir Spanish founders. General Riley, it w^as 
said, had expressed the opinion that Benicia, 
with its bold water-front and level upland, en- 
joyed a position far superior to San Francisco 
foi- a large city. Sonoma was solely a city of 
the future and of the imagination. 

This first Leg-islature also subdivided the 
State into twenty -seven counties. General 
Vallejo was chairman of a committee appoint- 
ed to report the derivation and meaning of their 
names. The General entered into the task with 
spirit, and in his report embodied a good deal 
of useful and curious information, of which we 
condense all that suits our present purpose. 

San Diego (St. James) takes the name of 
its chief town, which lies three miles distant 
from the harbor discovered by Viscaino in 
1602. The town had its name from the first 
mission established in Upper California, July 
16th, 1769. 

Los Angeles, the City " of the Angels," found- 
ed by order of the Viceroy of New Spain in 1781. 
Santa Barbara was named after the little 
town established in 1780, about midway be- 
tween San Diego and Monterey, to jirotect the 
five missions that occupied the choice spots of 
that pleasant region. 



DERIVATION OF COUNTY NAMES. 299 

San Luis Obispo after its principal town, the chap. 

vy'TT 

site of the mission estal:)lislied September 1st, 
1772, by Junipero Serra and Jose Cavalier. isso, 

Monterey : when Viscaino, in 1602, discov- 
ered the harbor cut in the coast where one of 
two parallel coast ranges of mountains strikes 
the sea; he named it Montere}^, after the count, 
with perhaps an allusion to the pines — " king 
of the forests " — that still blacken the southern 
point that shoots out to make the indentation 
a harbor. It was the official residence of four- 
teen governors, and generally the capital of the 
province. 

Santa Cruz, the "Holy Cross," from the mis- 
sion on the north side of Monterey Bay. 

San Francisco : Father Junipero Serra was a 
Franciscan monk, and he named the Mission 
Dolores, established in 1776, of which he had 
the immediate superintendence, after the foun- 
der of his order. The presidio, established the 
same year, and the magnificent bay took the 
same name, and the little village of Yerba 
Buena, finding itself no longer an obscure hide 
port, but a stirring American town, assumed it 
also. 

Santa Clara, from the mission established in 
January, 1777. 

Contra Costa, " opposite coast," was the nat- 
ural designation of the county across the bay, 
eastward from San Francisco. Yet it had a 



800 THE HISTOPwY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. naiTow escape of being profanely cliristened 
,_^_ Diablo^ after the noble mountain that rises 
1850. from its very centre and keeps guard over a 
wonderful expanse of valley and inland sea. 
In 1806 a military expedition marched against 
the tribe Bolgeres, then encamped at the west- 
ern foot of the mountain. At the moment 
that victory was inclining to the Indians, a 
mysterious stranger, dressed in extraordinary 
costume, suddenly appeared, indulged in some 
curious antics, and disappeared up the moun- 
tain. The defeated soldiers were told that the 
stranger made his appearance there daily, and 
the Indians called him "Puy," or Evil Spirit. 
Several legislators thought the mountain en- 
titled to name the county, but the Puy got his 
full dues in the naming of the mountain, and 
the county a very creditable designation in 
Contra Costa. 

Marin was the chief of a troublesome tribe 
of Indians which a military exploring expe- 
dition encountered in 1815. Marin was 
taken prisoner, but he escaped from San 
Francisco, rallied his tribe, and harassed the 
troops continually. Being closely pursued, 
he took refuse in the little islands at the mouth 
of San Rafael Inlet, which were hence called 
\he Marin Islands. In 1824, Marin was again 
carried captive to San Francisco. When he 
was set at liberty he retired to the San Rafael 



DEEIVATION OF COUNTY FAMES. 301 

Mission, and tliere died in 1834. His prowess and chap, 

• XXII 

the islets that befriended him named the county. >_^_1, 

Sonoma (the " Valley of the Moon ") is the 1850. 
Indian designation of the Arcadian region, at 
whose chief settlement the bear flas^ was 
raised in 1846. The Chocuyens possessed the 
valley when the missionaries visited it and 
founded there a mission. They called the 
chief Sonoma, and the tribe (dependants on 
Marin) adopted that as their tribal name. 

Solano: The great chief of the Suisunes, on 
receiving baptism, gave up his heathen title, 
Sem-Yeto (fierce hand), and accepted that of 
Solano, in honor of Francisco Solano, the mis- 
sionary. The county, embracing the fine arable 
land and marshes which the Suisunes claimed, 
not unnaturally was given his name. 

Yolo is a corruption of the Indian Yoloy, 
which signified a region thick with rushes, and 
was the name of the tribe owning the tule 
lands west of the Sacramento and bordering: 
on Cache Creek. 

Napa was the name of the brave tribe that 
occupied that most charming of valleys which 
stretches from San Pablo Bay to Mount St. 
Helen's. The tribe was very numerous and 
troublesome until 1838, when the small-pox 
almost swept it out of existence. 

Mendocino assumed the name of the western- 
most cape of the coast, discovered in 1543, and 



302 THE HISTOKT OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, named after IMendoza, the viceroy of New 

Spain and the author of the expedition. 
1850. Sacramento (the Sacrament). Lieutenant 
Moraga gave the great river which bears this 
name the designation of "Jesus Maria," and 
to its principal branch that of " Sacramento." 
But before the American conquest the great 
liver had assumed the name of the Sacramento, 
and the branch was called the Feather. The 
river named the county. 

El Dorado : Th.e county within whose limits 
the first discovery of gold in paying quantities 
was found fairly earned the name of El Dorado. 

Sutter: John Auo;ustus Sutter, a native of 
Switzerland, and formerly a military officer 
under Charles X., emigrated to California in 
1839, proposing to found a colony. He ob- 
tained a grant from tlie Mexican Government, 
fixed the site of his colony on the east side of 
the Sacramento, and south of tiie American 
Fork, named it New Helvetia, built and manned 
a fort, and by his ever-open hospitality made 
his home the rallying and recruiting place of 
emigrants from over the mountains. To name 
a county after him was but simple justice. 

Yuba is a misspelling of Uva, a name that 
an exploring party in 1824 gave to a tributary 
of the Feather, on whose banks they found 
growing immense quantities of wild grape-vines. 

Butte is tlie common French term for mound, 



DEKIVATION" OF COUNTY NAMES. 803 

and the symmetrical mounds that rise without chap. 
foot-hills out of the plain to a mountain height, l.^_^ 
east of the Sacramento, were named "The 1850. 
Buttes" in 1829 by a detachment of hunters, 
headed by Michael Laframbeau, of the Hudson 
Bay Company. Those peaks name the county. 

Colusa is an Indian word of unknown ori- 
gin, the appellation of a once numerous tribe on 
the west side of the Sacramento. 

Shasta was the name of a tribe of Indians 
that resided at the foot of the noblest moun- 
tain in California. 

Trinity drew its name from Trinity Bay, dis- 
covered on the anniversary of Trinity festival. 

Calaveras: An immense number of skulls were 
found by Captain Moraga in the vicinity of a 
creek, which, from tkat circumstance, was called 
Calaveras, or the river of Skulls. The story was, 
tliat the tribes from the Sierras came down to 
the valley to fish for salmon. To this the valley 
Indians objected, and, as the conflict was irre- 
pressible, a bloody battle was fought, and three 
thousand dead bodies were left to whiten the 
banks with their bones. The county in which 
the river rises assumed its name. 

San Joaquin: In 1813, Lieutenant Gabriel 
Moraga explored the valley of rnshes, and 
named a rivulet, which rises in the Sierras and 
empties into Lake Buena Vista, San Joaquin, 
after the legendary father of tlie Virgin. The 



304 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, rivulet named the great river ; the river named 

'^^^^' the valley and the county. 

1850. Tuolumne : A corruption from the Indian word 
tahnalaume, meaning a cluster of stone wigwams. 
Mariposa signifies l)utterfly. A hunting party 
of Californians, in 1807, observed the trees 
about the river, where they pitched their tents, 
gorgeous with butterflies. They named the 
river Mariposa, and the river named the county. 
It is a curious comment on the small imj)ort- 
ance attached to politics in those times, that 
there was really danger lest the first Legisla- 
ture should be dissolved for lack of a quorum. 
Two senators and three assemblymen, includ- 
ing the sj^eaker, early resigned, though some of 
them did it to take other ofiices to which they 
were elected. One assemblyman never appeared 
to claim his seat. Many were absent most of 
the time. Many talked of the great sacrifices 
they made in staying. In the quiet seclusion 
of San Jose, they fancied that, with the return 
of spring and the end of the rains, lousiness 
would revive with great energy : they repented 
their dabbling in politics. A sharp rebuke, 
administered by a joint committee, shamed 
members into more attention. 

After the speaker deserted his post, John 
Bigler was elected to occupy it. After Nathan- 
iel Bennet resigned his senatorship to accept 
the position of Associate Justice of the Su- 



DAVID C. BRODEEICK, 305 

preme Court, David C. Broderick, of San Fran- CHA]^ 
CISCO, was elected to liis place by twenty-five J___. 
hundred and eight out of only twenty-six bun- i850. 
dred and nine votes cast in his district. This 
was the first appearance in State politics of a 
man who was destined to exert an extraordi- 
nary influence on the j)olitical future of the 
State. He was born in WashinsTton, in the 
year 1819, the son of a stone-cutter. He re- 
moved in 1825 to New York City, with his 
parents, who soon after died. He was a rough, 
honest, self-reliant boy. He was connected 
with the Fire Department, kept a drinking- 
place, and meddled with local j)olitics. In 

1845 he was elected to j)reside over a con- 
vention for securing a new city charter. In 

1846 he was nominated for Congress, and was 
defeated. In 1849 he sailed for California. 
Without education, without flatterin<>: autece- 
dents, he determined to become a power in the 
State. For this he educated himself; to this 
devoted all his time and his extraordinary en- 
ergies. He soon made his mark in the Legisla- 
ture, and controlled the apparent executive. 
But it was the politics rather than the laws of 
California that he shaped ; he aimed to manage 
men rather than municipal measures. 

20 



306 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

WAITING OK CONGRESS FOR ADMISSION TO THE 

UNION. 

xxm ^^ California was fairly launched and started 
— . — on her career as a State. Will Congress admit 
1849, j^ej. to the sisterhood of States, or keep her out ? 
— a State by the voice of her people, and in all 
constitutional forms, yet without a State's rep- 
resentation in the Senate, or a State's voice 
among the Representatives. 

The Thirty-first Congress met at Washington 
on the 3d of December, 1849 ; but the House 
could not organize until the 2 2d, when, af- 
ter adopting the plurality rule, Howell Cobb, 
of Georgia, received one hundred and two 
votes, and was elected Speaker, over Robert 
C. Winthrop, who received, one hundred — the 
remaining twenty being scattered. President 
Zachary Taylor then sent in his first annual 
Message — the one that contained the famous 
passage which made the critics of the world so 
merry : " We are at peace with all the world, 
and seek to maintain our cherished relations of 
amity with the rest of mankind." 



PRESIDENT TAYLOe's MESSAGE. BOY 

Referring; to the affairs of California, he said chap. 

• . • XXIII 

that as no civil government had been provided _,^_^ 
for it by Congress, the people, impelled by the is4a. 
necessities of their political condition, had met 
in convention, and the latest advices gave him 
reason to suppose they had formed a constitu- 
tion and State government. It was believed 
they would shortly apply for, the admission of 
California into the Union as a sovereign State. 
Should such be the case, and should their con- 
stitution be conformable to the requisitions of 
the Constitution of the United States, he rec- 
ommended their application to a favorable 
consideration. By awaiting the action of the 
people of the territory, who would lay the 
foundation of a republican form of government 
in such principles and organize its power in 
such form as would seem to them most likely 
to effect their safety and happiness, all uneasi- 
ness might be avoided, and confidence and kind 
feeling preserved. " With a view of maintain- 
ing the harmony and tranquillity so dear to all," 
said he, " we should abstain from tLe introduc- 
tion of those exciting topics of a sectional char- 
acter which have hitherto produced painful 
apprehensions in the public mind ; and I repeat 
the solemn w^arning of the first and most illus- 
trious of my predecessors against furnishing 
any ground for characterizing parties by geo- 
graphical discriminations." 



308 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 

It was excellent advice, but nobody took it. 
The President informed Cono-ress that a collec- 
1849. tor had been appointed for San Francisco under 
the act extending the revenue laws over Cali- 
fornia. He advised the confirmation of the col- 
lections made there under military authority, 
and that the avails be expended within the 
territory, or paid into the treasury to meet ap- 
propriations for the improvement of its harbors 
and rivers. Arran2:ements for determinina: the 
sites of light-houses on the coast had been made, 
and, appreciating the mineral ^vealth of Califor- 
nia, and its advantages by position, he proposed 
reeonnoissances of several routes for railroads to 
the Pacific. 

General Sam Houston, of Texas, on the 4th 
of January, introduced a proposition which, 
while conceding that Congress had no power 
over the subject of negro slavery within the 
limits of tbe United States, either to prohibit, 
interfere with, or estaldish it in any State or 
Territory, for the sake of harmony afiirmed 
that if the people in the newly-acquired Terri- 
tories south of the parallel of thirty-six degrees 
thirty minutes north latitude [the Missouri 
Compromise line, and nearly the latitude of 
Monterey] should establish negro slavery in 
the formation of their State governments, it 
should be deemed no objection to their admis- 
sion into the Union. 



1S50. 
Jan. 



A QUESTION OF EXECUTIVE INFLUElSrCE. 309 

On tlie 21st of January, General Taylor, chap. 
in answer to a resolution of inquiry, stated ^ 
frankly that lie liad urged the formation of i85o. 
State governments in California and New Mex- 
ico. For this purpose he had sent out T. Butler 
King as bearer of dispatches, with a salary of 
eight dollars a day and expenses. He had not 
hesitated to express to the people of the terri- 
tories his desire that they form a plan of State 
government, and submit it to Congress, with a 
prayer to be admitted, but he had authorized 
no Government agent to influence any election 
or convention, or to interfere as to the provi- 
sions or restrictions of the constitution. The 
officers sent to California by his predecessor 
were instructed to promote measures leading to 
the same end. His motive had been a simple 
desire to afford Congress an opportunity to 
avoid a bitter dissension. 

Eight days afterwards, Henry Clay presented 
a series of compromise propositions to the 
Senate. The first proposed to admit California 
to the Union, with suitable boundaries, and 
without any restriction by Congress as to the 
exclusion or introduction of slavery within her 
boundaries. The second affirmed that Congress 
ought to establish Teriitorial governments for 
all the rest of the territory acquired from 
Mexico, without adopting any restriction or con- 
dition on the subject of slavery. Another de- 



310 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, clared it inexpedient to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia, while slavery existed in 
1850. Maryland, without the consent of the people of 
Maryland and of the District, and w^ithout com- 
pensation to the slave-owners. Another de- 
clared it expedient to prohibit the slave-trade 
in the District. Others announced that more 
effectual provision ought to be made for the res- 
titution and delivery of fugitive slaves, and that 
Congress had no power to prohibit the trade in 
slaves between the States. 

The debate that followed upon these propo- 
sitions engrossed the attention of the Senate 
almost exclusively for nearly two months, and 
they were not finally disposed of until Septem- 
ber. Mr. Foote, of Mississippi, saw no objection 
to admitting all of California above the line of 
thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, as a Free State, 
providing another Slave State could be carved 
out of Texas, so as to preserve the equiponder- 
ance between the Slave and Free States of the 
Union. 

Mr. Mason, of Virginia, deeply regretted 
Mr Clay's admission that by law slavery was 
already abolished in NeAV Mexico and Cali- 
fornia — a doctrine never assented to, so far as 
he knew, until then, by any senator represent- 
ing one of the slaveholding States. 

" Never," said Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, 
"will I take less than the Missouri Compro- 



HENRY CLAY ON SLAVERY EXTENSION. 311 

mise line extended to the Pacific Ocean, witli chap. 

■V""Y'TTT 

the specific recognition of the right to hold __^_^ 
slaves in the territory below that line, and i850. 
that before such Territories are admitted into 
the Union as States, slaves may be taken there 
from any of the United States, at the option of 
the owners." 

To which Mr. Clay nobly replied : " Com- 
ing from a Slave State, as I do, I owe it to my. 
self, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject to 
state, that no earthly power could induce me to 
vote for a specific measure for the introduction 
of slavery where it had not before existed, 
either south or north of that (Missouri Com- 
promise) line. Coming, as I do, from a Slave 
State, it is my solemn, deliberate, and well-ma- 
tured determination that no power — no earthly 
power — shall compel me to vote for the positive 
introduction of slavery, either south or north 
of that line. If the citizens of those territories 
(California and New Mexico) choose to estab- 
lish slavery, I am for admitting them with such 
provisions in their constitutions; but then it 
will be their work, and not ours, and their pos- 
terity will have to reproach them, and not us, 
for forming constitutions allowing the institu- 
tion of slavery to exist among them." 

William R. King, of Alabama, objected to 
California's mode of procedure. He preferred 
to train people through a Territorial govern- 



312 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, ment for the exercise and enioyment of our In- 
xxin. ... ,. '' -^ 

,_^__, stitutions. 

1S50. On the 13th of February, President T^iylor 
apprised Congress by message, that California 
had organized a State Government, and through 
her senators and representatives was applying 
for admission into the Union. 

It v\'-as upon the motion to refer this mes- 
sage to the Committee on Territories, that Mr. 
Calhoun, already prostrated with his last sick- 
ness, prepared his speech, which was read to 

Mar. 4. tlie Senate on the 4th of March by Senator Ma- 
son. He asked what ^vas to be done with Cali- 
fornia if she should not be admitted ? and him- 
self answered that she must be remanded back 
to the territorial condition, as was done in the 
case of Tennessee. The irregularities in her 
case, he said, were immeasurably greater and 
offered much stronger reasons for pursuing that 
course than did those of Tennessee. " But," 
said he, " California may not submit. That is 
not probable ; but if she should not, when she 
refuses, it will be time for us to decide what is 
to be done." Mr. Calhoun held that the indi- 
viduals in California who formed the constitu- 
tion of a State without first receiving the 
authority of Congress so to do, usurped the sov- 
ereignty of a State, and acted in open defiance 
of the authority of Congress ; what they did 
was revolutionary and rebellious in its charac- 



SPEECHES OF CALHOU]S", WEBSTEE, A]^D SEWARD. 313 

ter, and anarchical in its tendency. If General chap. 

XXIII 

Eiley had ordered the election of delegates to Ll _, 
the constitutional convention without authority, i850., 
he ought to l^e tried, or at least reprimanded, 
and his acts disavowed. As the Government 
had done neither, he presumed that his course i 

was approved. " If you admit California," said / 

he, " you exclude us from the acquired territo- i 

ries with the intention of destroying irretrieva- 
bly the equilibrium between the two sections." 

Three days later, Daniel Webster addressed 
the Senate on JVIi*. Clay's resolutions. He re- Mar.7. 
iterated his previous expressions that we had 
territory enough ; that we should follow the 
Spartan maxim — Improve, adorn what you have, 
seek no further. He held slavery to be ex- 
cluded from California by the law of nature. 
He would not vote to put any prohibition into 
any act providing a Territorial government. He 
" would not take pains to reafBrm an ordinance 
of nature, nor to re-enact the will of God." In 
this speech he uttered his remarkable sentence 
concerning peaceable secession. 

William H. Seward said : " Let California 

come in." " California, that cc>mes from the March 

. . . . 11 

clime where the west dies away into the rising 

east — California, which bounds at once the em- 
pire and the continent — California, the youthful 
queen of the Pacific, in the robes of freedom 
gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome. 



314 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP. She stands lustifiecl for all tlie irreo-ularities iu 

XXIII . . 

her method of coming." He praised her that 
she would not remain in the condition of a mili- 
tary colony. The irregularities of her method 
of coming, of which so much complaint was 
made, were the following: She came uncere- 
moniously, without a preliminary consent of 
Congress ; she assigned her own boundaries 
without the previous authority of Congress; 
she was too large ; no census had been taken ; 
no laws prescribed the qualifications of suffrage 
Ijefore her constitutional convention ^vas held ; 
she came constrained by executive influence to 
come as a Free State and to come at once. Of 
these last charges the first clause was denied, 
the second clause was admitted, nor was it a 
serious usiu'j)ation in the executive to recom- 
mend that a State relieve itself and him from 
the exercise of military authority. Mr. Seward 
believed that the perpetual unity of our empire 
hung on the decision of that day. He urged 
that the consent of Congress be granted at 
once — they would never agree if not then. 
" Nor," said he, " will California abide delay. 
I do not say she contemplates independence, 
because she does not anticipate rejection." 
" Either the stars and stripes must wave over 
her ports, or she must raise aloft a standard for 
herself." He asked if it would be a mean am- 
bition to set up within fifty years monuments 



THE SLAVERY QUESTIOl^. 315 

like tliose wliicli two hundred years had estab- chap. 

• *" • * ICXTTT 

lished on the Atlantic coasts ? As to her ability , 

to become independent, he reminded the Senate i850. 
that she was farther away than England, out of j j^ 
the reach of railroads or unbroken steam naviga- 
tion ; the prairie, and mountain, and desert, an 
isthmus of foreign jurisdiction, and a cape of 
storms interposed between her and the armies 
of the Union. " You may send a navy there; 
but she has only to open her mines and she can 
seduce your navies and appropriate your float- 
ing bulwarks to her own defence." If she went, 
he intimated that Oregon would go also, and 
then the Pacific coast was lost. So, with an 
argument which few Californians would have 
used, Mr. Seward insisted upon the immediate 
admission, while he opposed any compromise. 

Mr. Seward showed how earnest he was, by a 
confession which brought Senator Footo to his 
feet for an explanation, and startled not a little 
his anti-slavery friends. Repugnant to his 
wishes as such a necessity would be, he said 
that even if California had come seekinp: ad- 
mission as a Slave State, in view of the extra- 
ordinary circumstances of her coming, and of 
the consequences of the dismemberment of the 
empire consequent upon her rejection, he would 
have voted for her admission. It was in this 
famous speech of Mr. Seward's that the sentence 
occurred which made him the best-abused man 



316 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, in the country for ten years following: : "There 
XXIII • . . 

IS a higher law than the Constitution." He re- 

1850. plied to a point w^hich Mr. Webster had made, 

that there is no just human enactment which is 

not a re-enactment of the law of God. He could 

not rely on climate to exclude slavery, for he 

was born in a land where slavery existed, 

though it was a land all north of the fortieth 

parallel of latitude. 

While the debate was pending, John Bell, 
April, of Tennessee, had submitted a series of compro- 
mise resolutions, the sixth of which accepted 
the constitution of California, and admitted the 
State on an equal footing in all respects with 
the original States. Stephen A. Douglas, of 
Illinois, from the Committee on Territories, 
doubting the fate of the proposed compromise, 
introduced two bills for a settlement ,;ithout 
a compromise — one to admit California, the 
other to establish territorial governments for 
Utah and New Mexico. Both had their second 
reading, and then Mr. Benton's proposition to 
consider the California Bill v/as, on Mr. Clay's 
motion, tabled — ayes, twenty-seven ; 7ioe6\ tw^en- 
t3^-five. So it w"as determined that there should 
be some compromise before the question was 
settled. 

Mr. Foote now moved the reference of IVIr. 
Bell's resolutions to a committee of thirteen, 
without instructions. Mr. Benton opposed 



COMPEOMISE PEOPOSITIONS. 317 

"makins: an omnibus" of the resolutions, and chap. 

. . . XXIII 

urged the impropriety of causing the passage '^^^ ; 

of one important bill to depend upon the aclop- 1850. 
tion or rejection of any other bill. His motion 
to keep the California question separate from 
all others was lost — ayes, twenty-three ; 7ioes, 
twenty-eight. 

Mr. Footers motion, so amended as to refer 
Mr. Clay's as well as Mr. Bell's resolutions to a 
select committee, was adopted. The committee 
of thirteen v/as selected by ballot as follows: 
Henry Clay of Kentucky, Chairman ; Mr. Dick- 
inson of New York, Mr. Phelps of Vermont, 
Mr. Bell of Tennessee, Mr. Cass of Michigan, 
Mr. Webster of Massachusetts, Mr. Berrien of 
Georgia, Mr. Cooper of Pennsylvania, Mr. Downs 
of Louisiana, Mr. King of Alabama, Mr. Man. 
gum of North Carolina, Mr. Mason of Virginia, 
and Mr. Brio-ht of Indiana — seven from Slave 
States, six from Free States. 

Early in May, Mr. Clay reported, and among May. 
the propositions of his report ^vas one admitting 
California foi-thwith as a State, with the bound- 
aries adopted in her constitution. These com- 
promise resolutions, and the " Omnibus Bill " 
which embraced their principal provisions, were 
vigorously debated for the next four months. 

Mr. Soule, of Louisiana, moved that all south 
of the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty min- 
utes be cut off from California, and formed 



818 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORJflA. 

CHAP, into a Territory to be called South California. 

XXIII • . i' ' 

_^_^ whicli should be admitted as a State when it 
1850. were able and willing, with or without slavery, 
as its people might desire. This was rejected 
by nineteen ayes (all Southern votes) and 
thirty-six noes. Mr. King moved that the 
])arallel of thirty-five degrees thirty minutes 
be the southern boundary of the State of 
California; rejected, ^^/e.? twenty, noes thirty- 
seven. Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, moved that 
thirty-six degrees thirty minutes be the boun- 
dary; lost, ayes twenty-three, noes thirty-two. 
Mr. Turuey moved that the people of California 
be enabled to form a new constitution ; lost, 
ayes nineteen, noes thirty- three. Mr. Yulee 
moved to remand California to a territorial con- 
dition, and limit her southern boundary ; lost, 
ayes twelve, noes thirty -five. Mr. Foote moved 
to erect all that part of California that lies 
south of the thirty-six-thirtieth parallel into 
the " Territory of Colorado ;" lost, ayes thirteen, 
noes twenty-nine. Mr. Turney moved to fix 
the southern boundary l)y the line of thirty-six 
thirty ; lost, ayes twenty, noes thirty. On the 
Aug. 12th of August, the Southern members, having 
exhausted all parliamentary tactics to stave it 
off, the question was put on ordering the Cali- 
fornia Bill engrossed for its third reading, for 
by this time the several measures of the Com- 
promise Bill had been severed and brought for- 



12. 



THE CALIFOENIA BILL PASSES THE SEjSTATE. 319 

ward in distinct bills. It prevailed, ayes thirty- chap. 

XXIII 

three (all the Free State senators and Mr. Bell, v_^_^ 
Mr. Benton, Mr. Houston, Mr. Spruance, Mr. i850. 
Wales, and . Mr. Underwood voting aye) ; noes ^"* 
nineteen (all from Slave States). Next day 
the bill had its third reading, and passed, ayes 
thirty-four, noes eighteen. 

Immediately Senators Mason and Hunter 
of Virginia, Butler and Khett of South Caro- 
lina, Turney of Tennessee, Jefferson Davis of 
Mississippi, Atchison of Missouri, and Morton 
and Yulee of Florida, entered their protest 
against it. They thought it due to themselves, 
the people of their care, and their posterity, to 
leave an enduring memorial of their opposition 
to the measure. They wished to place upon 
record the reason of their opposition to a bill 
whose consequences might be so durable and 
portentous as to make it an object of deep 
interest to all who came after them. This rea- 
son, reiterated in several forms, was, that the 
admission of California made an odious discrim- 
ination against the proj)erty of fifteen slave- 
holding; States. It denied those States a rio-ht 
to the equal enjoyment of the territory of the 
Union. The Government, they said, had in 
effect declared that the exclusion of slavery 
from the territory of the United States was an 
object so high and important as to justify a 
disregard, not only to all the principles of 



320 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, sound policy, but also of tlie institution itself. 

XXIII . . 

^_; " Against this conclusion we must now and 

1850. forever protest, as it is destructive of tlie safety 
and liberties of those wliose rights have been 
committed to our care, fatal to the peace and 
equality of the States which we represent, and 
must lead, if persisted in, to the dissolution of 
that confederacy in which the slaveholding 
States have never sought more than equality, 
and in which they will not be content to remain 
with less." 

In this protest the abandoned dogma of Mr. 
Calhoun, that the Constitution of the United 
States carries slavery with it, into whatever 
territory it extends, is assumed as a true doc- 
trine. Afterwards it was announced by Judge 
Taney, in the Dred Scott decision, from the 
bench of the Supreme Court. The hint at se- 
cession on the admission of California as a 
Free State, and the consequent destruction of 
the balance in the Senate between the Slave 
and Free States, was regarded at the time as 
little more than a very common threat. After- 
wards, it was remembered as significant that 
even then the great rebellion was in contempla- 
tion. 

The California Bill went to the House of Rep- 
resentatives, and was read twice and committed 
Sept. on the 28tli of August. On the 7th of Septem- 
ber it came up, and Mr. Boyd, of Kentucky, 



CALIFORNIA ADMITTED. 321 

moved to append the bill organizing the Terri- chap. 
tory of New Mexico. Mr. Vinton, of Ohio, " ^ 
objected to that, as out of order. Speaker isaO. 
Cobb overruled the objection, but the House ^^ ' 
refusing to sustain his decision, the amend- 
ment was not considered, Jacob Thompson, of 
Mississippi, moved to cut off from California 
all below the line of thirty-six forty, which 
was rejected — ayes^ seventy-six ; noes, one 
hundred and sixty-one. Then the bill was 
ordered to its third reading and passed — ayes, 
one hundred and iifty ; wjes. fifty-six, all South- 
erners- 

The bill went to the President for his signa- 
ture, and, on the 9th of September, Millard 
Fillmore, who, by the death of General Taylor, 
had succeeded to the Presidential chair, signed 
it, and California was admitted the thirty-first 
State of the American Union. 

Senators Fremont and Gwin were admitted 
to their seats as representatives from the new 
State in time to give a vote upon one or two 
of the Compromise measures. All the proposi- 
tions of Mr. Clay's Omnibus, though severed 
from each other, and presented in separate bills, 
and two of them, afterwards reunited, were 
adopted. So the joy over California's admission 
was not unalloyed at the North, nor the sorrow 
at the South without compensation. She was 
admitted as a Free State only on condition of 

21 



322 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 

CHAP, leaving New Mexico and Utah open to slavery, 

^_^ ; the concession of perpetual slavery in tlie 

18.j0. District of Columbia, the passage of a law for 
^^^^' the recapture of fugitive slaves, which griev- 
ously offended the North, and a stipulation 
that the subject of slavery should never again 
be agitated in either chamber of Congress. 

These compromises, which were so distasteful 
to both sections, really seemed for a time to 
bring repose to the public mind. The National 
Democratic Convention of June, 1852, which 
nominated Franklin Pierce for President, re- 
solved that the Democratic Party would abide 
by and adhere to a faithful execution of the 
compromises of 1850. The Whig National 
Convention of June, 1852, which nominated 
Winfield Scott for President, recommended and 
acquiesced in them by a vote of three hundred 
and twelve ayes to seventy Jioes. These two 
great parties embraced the vast majority of the 
voters of the Union. 

There was outside of these parties a vigilant 
and restless minority, which never ceased agi- 
tating the slavery question, and it was making 
rapid inroads into both parties ; yet the repose 
might have remained much longer unbroken, 
but for the fact that they who most deprecated 
agitation, startled the political world four years 
later with the doctrine that the compromises 
of 1850 made inoperative and void the Missouri 



THE PRICE OF ADMISSION 323 

Compromise, and insisted on putting that doc- chap. 
trine into the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. After _^_^ 
which there was no more " repose," and the 1850. 
compromises, by virtue of which California P*" 
struggled into the Union, were treated as no 
longer binding beyond the letter of the laws 
thiit embraced them. 



324 THE HISTOllY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

" TUE FALL OF '49 AND THE SPRING OF '50." 

News of the admission of the State into the 
Union reached San Francisco on the 18th of 
1850. October, 1850, Ly the steamer Oregon. Of 
^*^^- course it could create no surprise ; the event 
had been looked on as foreordained ever 
since the conquest. The j^eople claimed it as 
a right, and had never contemplated the possi- 
bility of its being denied. Notwithstanding,' it 
was a great thing to have the seal of national 
authority put on their State proceedings ; it 
was a grand thing to be recognized as part 
of the American Union ; and so the Ore- 
gorHs tidings were greeted with high enthu- 
siasm. The 29th was set aside in San Fran- 
cisco as a day of celebration over the event. A 
procession, of which the Chinese were a striking 
feature, an oration by Judge Nathaniel Ben- 
nett on the plaza, the recitation of an ode writ- 
ten by a lady, the firing of guns, the discharge 
of artillery, the display of fireworks, and the 
illumination by bonfires, made the day and the 
night memorable. 



HIE TENT AGE. 325 

From the fall of 1849 to the fall of 1850 was chap. 
the tent era of California — the strange, flush ^ ' 
times of the young State. Most of the popula- i849- 
tion felt themselves pilgrims in the land, tern- ^^^^' 
porary residents, enduring merrily severe pri- 
vations for the sake of a future of plenty and 
enjoyment in a distant home. Property was 
changing hands, fortune changing favorites, with 
astonishing rapidity. The poor man of yester- 
day was the rich man of to-day. The servant, 
running away from his master, tarried a mouth 
or two in the mines, and returned with gold 
enough to buy his master out. Social distinc- 
tions were nearly rubbed out. Almost all men 
felt that, whether they were born so or not, 
they had become free and equal. 

The average wages made by miners in 1849 
were, perhaps, twenty to thirty dollars a day ; 
yet in rich diggings an average of fi'om three 
hundred t(j five hundred a week was not un- 
common for weeks together. The abundance 
of gold in the hands of people not used to it 
made them lavish. There was very little sit- 
ting down and calculating how to economize, 
and there was no "Poor Richard" pleading 
frugality, and pointing out the penury that 
must follow thriftlessness. And if there was 
any shrewd Yankee still following the precepts 
of his early education, and in an open-handed 
generation trying to remember that it is not 



326 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEKLA. 

CHAP, what a man makes, but what he saves, that de- 
'^^^ termines him rich or poor, his daily memoran- 
1849- dum of expenses must have seemed very shock- 

1850. ijjg_ 

If he breakfasted at a restaurant in San 
Francisco he had a dollar to pay for a beef- 
steak and a cup of coffee. For fresh eggs he 
must pay from seventy-five cents to a dollar 
each. His dinner would cost him from a dollar 
and a half to five dollars, according to his appe- 
tite. A " square meal " at a cleanly tavern cost 
from two dollars upward. Washing was eight 
dollars for the dozen pieces ; it even happened, 
they say, that some sent their dirty clothes to 
China to be washed. 

The great body of immigrants were adult males. 
The lack of refined and virtuous women gave so- 
ciety a rough, unpolished aspect. The fame of the 
gold placers had tempted a rush of all sorts of 
men, and it must l)e confessed that for a while it 
seemed that the doubtful and dangerous classes 
were in excess over the orderly. The lightest 
drift of the floating population of the world 
washed up here. Not only the restless charac- 
ters of Christendom, but of heathen countries 
also, obeyed the strong attraction. Some mid- 
dle-aged good men came, impelled by a sens(5 of 
duty to try one chance more of acquiring for 
their dependent families the competence that 
they had failed to command at home. Some 



CHAEACTER OF THE EMIGEANTS. 3l'7 

left tlieir families, because it was no cross to chap. 
leave them. Others came because enterprise 
spurred them, and there was nothing to hold i849- 
them back. Others came with motives of am- 
bition ; they were conscious of having failed in 
the old country — in a new one they would try 
life over again. They had counted the offices 
to be filled, and came on to serve their coun- 
try, and be maintained at the public expense. 
There were a few, a very few, who had faith in 
the future of the region ; who intelligently ap- 
preciated the geographical and commercial po. 
sition of California, and came with a sincere de- 
sire to see its foundations laid in justice audits 
walls squared by Christian principle. Alto- 
gether, and chiefly, it was not the best material 
out of which to construct a model society ; but 
it was strong, enterprising, swift, and positive. 
It might become either nol^le or infamous. It 
was only incapable of mediocrity. 

On landing at San Francisco, which early 
became the principal port of debarkation, or on 
arriving over the Sierras, almost all dashed first 
into the mines. Placer mining could be learned 
in a day ; any one who could shovel dirt, stand 
up to his knees in running Avater, and shake a 
pan, knew the art. It indeed required skill to 
" prospect " successfully ; but if one doubted 
his ability in that matter, he had only to follow 
the multitude, and do as they did, or take up 



328 THE niSTOEY OF CALIFOKlSriA. 

CHAP, the desei'ted claim wliicli a company, beariug 
' _J of better " finds," had quit. 

1849- A few weeks' or months* experience satis- 
^^'^^' fied the multitude that minino; was not their 
forte, and they retreated from it, providing 
they had the money to get off with. If a 
man knew any trade, he could make more 
than the miner's average by work he had 
learned to love. If accustomed to farmin<r, 
he could raise potatoes or beans or corn iu 
some rich nook close by the miner's camp, 
and be more sure of a liberal profit than the 
miner whom he fed. Any body could keep a 
store. Any one who could erect a cabin, and 
get a barrel of whiskey safely into it, could 
keep a hotel. The miners pioneered the farm- 
ers, mechanics, and tradesmen ; and wherever 
they stopped for a few months on a bar or in a 
canon, a village, perhaps a city, sprang up as 
if by magic. Still, all the while, there was a 
strong tide of successful or disgusted miners 
setting back to San Francisco. 

The currency was gold-dust — that is, small 
scales, globules, or nuggets of gold. At first 
they rudely measured it; then as rudely 
weigjhed it — a silver dollar's wei2:ht, the weio-ht 
of a jack-knife, the weight of an ounce avoirdu- 
pois. Then they began to melt the dust into 
bars, ingots, or slugs, stamping the initials of 
the assayer to give credit to its designated 



THE CUERENCY AND WAGES. 329 

weif^hfc where scales were not accessible. Not chap. 
till 1854, when the United States gave them a _^^_^ 
Branch Mint at San Francisco, was the currency i849- 
regulated with any satisfaction, ^^^^' 

The cheapness of gold raised the value of 
every thing else. Silver was scarce ; no change 
under a quarter of a dollar was given or taken. 
What was worth buying was surely worth a 
quarter. Wages were exceedingly high : rough 
labor at San Francisco brouo-ht eio-ht dollars a 
day ; carmen earned from fifteen to twenty dol- 
lars a day ; " help " was scarce at one hundred 
to two hundred dollars a month. 

While labor was in such demand, and so well 
paid, it could not be deemed degrading. For 
carrying a trunk a mile a man would get a 
week's wages at Eastern I'ates. So, few scru- 
pled to do for money whatever offered. There 
were the most astonishing changes in employ- 
ments. Persons who had been preachers or 
doctors or lawyers at home, shouldered bag- 
gage, did street-work, drove drays, if they could 
muster the capital to buy a horse and cart, 
blacked boots, served at table, and were not 
ashamed. 

Almost every company that bought a ship 
at the East, and came around the Horn in her, 
put in a full freight of eatables, thinking that 
if they only were not perishable, they could 
scarcely fail to find a profitable market. So 



330 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, tlie market was glutted witli certain articles, 
,^_^_^ while others no money would buy. Potatoes 
1849- were dumped into the bay by the ton, not com- 
^^^^' mandiug a price sufficient to pay for l)oating 
them to the shore. Word would go East by 
steamer that the market was bare of butter or 
tobacco, or some style of dry goods for which 
a day or two of hot weather made some in- 
quiry. The five or six sharp Eastern merchants 
who were fjivored with the news, would give 
quick dispatch to half a score of clippers, 
freighted with the articles desired. The first 
one in would make the fortune of the shippers, 
the tardy ones find no market. In the spring 
of 1850 such quantities of tobacco had arrived 
at San Francisco, for which there was no de- 
mand, that rather than pay the exorbitant 
prices of storage, the full chests were used to pave 
the muddy street-crossings. The resident mer- 
chants generally sold on commission, so the ruin 
was on the parties abroad for whom they acted 
as agents. The Eastern merchants then tried 
assorting cargoes ; if one article had to be cast 
into the street, some other one might cover all 
losses, and secure a handsome profit on the 
whole venture. Sometimes it would seem as if 
they fimcied that whatever was not wanted at 
home would be in demand here, and San Fran- 
cisco was heaped and piled with odd, impracti- 



A WET WINTEE. 331 

cable, useless goods, cramming the sparse ware- chap. 
houses, and overflowing them. w-v— ' 

Houses framed and ready to be put together i849- 
without the aid of any tool but an axe and a 
hammer, were sent out, some fine specimens of 
which still survive, wearing a pleasant, homely 
look, very noticeable for a fashion which never 
prevailed here. When there began to be a 
panic about fires, corrugated iron plates were 
shij:)ped in considerable quantities. Some 
houses built of this mateiial still remain, very 
rusty and leaky; and the materials of some 
that have been torn down to make room for 
brick buildings furnish a more durable than 
sightly fence for the suburban gardens. 

The winter of 1849 and 1850 proved to be a 
very wet one — the " wettest one," the pioneers 
insisted, until 1861-62. The fact that the 
streets were mthout pavements, and the people 
chiefly domiciled in tents, no doubt enhanced 
the discomforts of the season, and contributed 
to give it a bad name. When a man has noth- 
ing but a piece of canvas over him, and cannot 
set foot into the street without sinking to the 
ankle in mud, and especially when he has no 
family in his wretched lodging-place, and has 
to " find himself," a tolerably moderate rainy 
season goes inevitably for a " horrid winter." 
With the opening of that spring, all who were 



332 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

^^y able, and expected to stay ou the coast, pre- 
V— r— ^ pared more respectable house-accommodations. 
lljl' Among- the curious consio-nments of the early 

1850. '^ ^ . '~ *' 

days were omnibuses, which, because the streets 
were not easily traversed by heavy-wheeled 
vehicles, were planted and employed as restau- 
rants. Old ships, which never could get hands 
enough to go to sea again, were beached at high 
tide. They served for enviable boarding-houses. 
As streets were laid out and constructed into 
the bay, many of these were left standing. As 
the sand-hills were wheeled down to the flats, 
and the grades raised, these grew firm in the 
foundations of the city. Upon more than one 
such was built up a superstructure in the form 
of a house. If it was a hotel, it still retained 
the name of the ship which was its foundation. 
The ship A2yollo was used as a store ; the Eu- 
jyhemia as a prison, while moored in the bay. 
Still others, beached in more slowly-growing 
2)arts of the town, were left to rot for years, un- 
used. But as boats, sloops, and schooners were _ 
needed, and the price of labor declined, their 
timbers and old iron were got out and sav©d. 
Some of the best craft in the fleet of coastwise 
and river vessels that a dozen years later vexed 
the harbors and navigal)le streams of California 
were made out of the skeletons of ships origin- 
ally built on the New England coast. 

The saw-mill was soon at work, splitting the 



STYLE OF BUILDING. 333 

redwoods, which crowned innumerable heights, chap. 
into boards, shingles, and joists. Then wooden 
houses were run up almost in a day. The joists 1849- 
were set in the ground, and a floor laid, the up- 
rights erected, and the frail structure grew story 
by story. Cloth answered for partitions and 
ceilings, and paper for paint. These combus- 
tible shells brought the rent of substantial 
houses. If the roof would shed water in win- 
ter, and the flimsy walls stand up against the 
winds of summer, it was enough. Throw a 
spark of fire into such materials, and unless a 
pail of water were at hand to quench it, it was 
of little use to ring the fire-bells. Nothing but 
a wide vacant space could stop the ravages of 
the conflagration. 

Four great fires San Francisco suffered during 
this memorable term. The first broke out in 
Dennison's Exchange, a grand gambling-saloon 
on the south side of the Plaza, on the morning 
of the 24th of December, 1849. It burned 
over half the block, and destroyed more than a 
million dollars worth of property. Before the 
ruins had stopped smoking, much of the ground 
was rebuilt and occupied again. On the 4th 
of May, 1850, at four o'clock in the morning, 
fire affain broke out near the same site. This 
time it swept over three blocks, from Montgom- 
ery to Kearny Street, and from Clay to Jack- 
son Street, destroying three million dollars 



334 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, worth of property. In ten days, more than 

■^^^^- half the burnt district was rebuilt. On the 

1849- 14tli of June, 1850, another fire laid in ashes 

1850. ^Yie district bounded by Kearny, Clay, and 

California streets and the bay, and the daru- 

asres were estimated at four million dollars. On 

the morning of September l7th, 1850, a fourth 

fire consumed the buildings, mostly of wood, 

and but one story high, on the tract bounded 

by Dupont and Montgomery, Washington and 

Pacific streets. The damage was variously 

estimated at from a quarter to half a million of 

dollars. 

Men grew credulous because there were so 
many unquestionable marvels as to the occa- 
sional finding of gold in nuggets, or lying loose 
in " pockets " of rocks. Early in 1850, two nug- 
gets of gold were found, weighing about twenty- 
three pounds each. Others of not quite such 
astonishino; size were brousfht to light in 1849. 
Every such case set half wild the miners who 
were toiling at a claim that paid less than at 
first, or whose early 23romise had not been kept. 
Very soon they were sorel}^ given to " rushes." 
In June, 1849, a mountaineer named Green- 
wood told the miners at Coloma that he had 
seen gold in abundance at Truckee Lake. The 
news spread swiftly, though noiselessly, and 
hundreds left good diggings to try their luck 
at Truckee Lake. They returned soon after 



MINLKG EUSHES. 335 

thorouglily destitute. They found the place, chap. 
l^it no color of gold there. , 

In May of 1850, the Gold Lake fever broke i849- 
out. Two miners were overheard by a third ^^^^' 
talking of a lake on whose shores the gold lay 
loose like pebbles. The third man guessed 
that the wonderful region was Gold Lake, a 
little sheet of water not far from Downie- 
ville. He began at once preparations to go 
to it, talking freely meanwhile of what he had 
seen there. The story was whispered fi"om one 
to another, and thousands of men deserted 
claims where they were making from twenty to 
forty dollars a day, and dashed off to tbe seclu- 
ded pond — whence they returned a few months 
later without any thing to show for their pains. 

It seems strange now tliat practical men were 
so often and easily deluded. But it must be 
remembered that the majority labored under 
the impression that they came to California just 
one trip too late, and they did not choose to 
lose the second chance at a fortune by tardiness. 
Besides, the true tales that were told and illus- 
trated by the full belts of gold buckled about 
the waists of the narrators, were scarcely less 
astonishing to the inexperienced than the wild- 
est fable that was poured into the ears of the 
experienced, whose credulity thrived on what 
they had seen. 

These rushes afterwards became so common 



336 THE lUSTOIlY OF CALIFOKXIA. 

CHAP, that no year passed witliout one or more of 
them. Those who went and saw for them- 

1849- selves, were, on their return, instead of being 
'^ ' the butt of their companions, regarded with 
admiration. They had " seen the elephant " — 
had experienced the joy of waking out of a de- 
lusion on the very spot where the charm was 
to work its wonders. It grew into a habit with 
some to take every fever, and join in every rush. 
At heart they thought fortune must favor 
those who took all the chances ; but they pro- 
fessed an unconquerable desire to see the end 
of every humbug. Doubtless there are some 
in the State who have personally explored 
the truth or falsity of every grand mining story 
that has excited the public since the first stam- 
pede for Coloma. 

Land, of course, acquired a high value about 
the centres, of po23ulation, and troubles sprang 
up between the squatters, who claimed by j)re- 
emption or actual possession, and the claimants 
under Spanish or Mexican grants. In August, 
1850, there were serious riots at Sacramento. 
Most of the land there was claimed under 
conveyances from Sutter, yet it was sprinkled 
with squatters. The Sutter claimants got favor- 
able decisions from the courts ; but the squatters 
pulled out their pistols and refused to be oust- 
ed. Several of them were arrested and impris- 
oned. Their friends rushed, armed, to the rescue. 



SQUATTER EIOTS GAMBLING. 337 

and a collision occurred between them and tlie chap. 
sheriff's posse. Several squatters were killed. l_^_j 
Of tlie sheriff's party, one was killed and others i849- 
wounded. 

The gamblers of the world met here; the 
foremost of that desperate and wretched class 
swarmed to San Francisco like vultures to the 
carcass. The recklessness with which money 
was squandered made it their paradise. The 
homelessness of the people furnished them vic- 
tims in abundance. The absence of municipal 
law, or the neglect of its officers, left them with- 
out restraint to indulge their career. 

Soon the choicest business locations in town 
were occupied as gambling saloons. The plaza 
was surrounded by them. The Parker House 
rented for one hundred and ten thousand dol- 
lars a year ; more than half the amount was 
paid by gamblers. The "El Dorado," while 
a tent, fifteen by twenty-five feet on the ground, 
rented for forty thousand dollars a year to gam- 
blers. 

These saloons were fitted up with all the 
attractions of gilded mirrors, pictures more 
costly than chaste, and plaster statuary. The 
gold Avas heaped upon the tables in piles that 
made the richest feel poor as they gaped at 
them. The miner, who had filled his buckskin 
pouch with gold and his bones with rheuma- 
tism after months of toil, dropping down to the 

22 



338 THE HISTOEY OF CALQ^OETTLV, 

CHAP, city on business or pleasure, or on his way East, 
,_^__J, could scarcely pass by the open doors, where so 
1849- many thronged, without entering from curi- 
'^^' osity. He saw there men pocketing by a lucky 
throw of the dice more money than his pouch 
held. Possibly he saw a man whom at home 
he had regarded as a model of morality, staking 
his whole substance on the chance of a card. 
The foolish fellow must needs try his luck too, 
is " dead broke " by the experiment, and now 
must, of course, hurry back to the mines to be- 
gin the world again. Men gambled who did 
not know a card when they came into the place ; 
some from mere love of the excitement ; some 
hopefully to snatch the means of getting back 
to their families, unquiet, anxious, and sick 
with hope deferred ; some recklessly, because 
they were alone in the world, and none would 
suffer with their loss. 

Without law, there was an unwritten law 
taken for granted, that dealt justice to rich and 
poor alike with rigid exactness. In the mines, 
where eveiy thing depended on the good faith 
of man to man, theft was the mortal sin, and 
the eighth commandment was deemed altogether 
the most important of the decalogue. Men 
frequently wore theu* gold in belts about them ; 
still, a very successful miner must have some 
sort of deposit for what he could not lug about 
liis person. So he buried it under his cabin- 



LT2sXH LAW. 339 

floor, or by tlie roots of some privately marked chap. 
tree, or in some other equally secret spot, where 
a spying neighbor would be very likely to i849- 
catch him hiding it. But, woe to the thief who "^ ' 
despoiled him ! When a robbery was com- 
mitted, they rallied from all the camps about, 
to hunt the culprit, and, when found, to try 
him, Judge Lynch presiding. The jury were 
intolerant of long trials. The examinations 
were sharp and brief, the questions apt to be 
leading. When the jury found a verdict of 
guilty^ the miserable prisoner was run up by 
the neck to a limb of the nearest tree. The 
very swiftness of Justice saved her from being 
called into frequent requisition. Lynch law 
knew no delays, and made some terrible blun- 
ders, which, while they scared evil-doers none 
the less, brought this border law into disre- 
pute. 

About the meanest class that cursed the com- 
munity was a brood of unprincipled, labor- 
hating, professional politicians, who gathered 
from all corners of the States, fetching with 
them the worst vices peculiar to the political 
system of the locality they had I'elieved by leav- 
ing. Some had found politics unprofitable at 
home ; but, in their pursuit, had acquired habits 
that unfitted them for any less exciting employ- 
ment. There were others who had been edu- 
cated to believe that offices were made for their 



340 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, enioyment. To demand one as miicli entitled 

^__^ them to places at tlie public crib, as more modest 

1849 - folks, by work, entitled themselves to a living. 

■ These were the " chivalry," whose touchstone 

was devotion to slavery. If they came from the 

South, they spoke with contemptuous oaths of 

the " Yankees ;" if from the North, they out- 

heroded Herod in their abuse of " abolitionists," 

and knew no service too menial to render to 

the '' gentlemen of the South." 

There were a few \^'ho saved politics from 
utter degradation ; men who in the midst of 
their business had studied the theory of our 
government, and were statesmen undeveloped 
to the public ; others, also, who had been in- 
trusted with power and position at home, but 
either l)ecause their influence waned, or hoping 
to rise faster in a new State, brought their 
talent and their experience to this market. 

The Democratic party introduced California 
to the circle of territories, but the Whigs were 
in power when she was admitted as a State, and 
had they managed with shrewdness, they might 
have taken the cream of that advantage. They 
lacked sagacity in the selection of agents to 
represent them. They lost the favor of the mi- 
ners by advising the sale of the mineral lands 
which the cosmopolitan crowd claimed to be- 
long, without distinction of color, or nation, or 



POLITICAL BLU]!0)ERS. 341 

language, or religion, to tliose wlio would work guar 
tliem. 

Then the calculations of those who made the 
question of slavery paramount were all frustra- 
ted. The very method of the settlement of the 
country was a nail in the skull of slavery. The 
expectation of the war party had been that the 
climate " would draw to it mostly a Southern 
population." Probably that would have proved 
true but for the sudden violence with which 
the gold fever burst upon the States. Many 
early immigrants from the South brought their 
slaves with them. But if the penalty of death 
would not deter soldiers from deserting from 
camps, where there was nothing to do, to the 
mines — if wages treble any ever offered to sail- 
ors before would not keep Jack on board ship 
when sailing in any direction was homeward, 
it was certainly no wonder that the most trusty 
slave deserted his master, in a land where a few 
weeks' work made all men equal, and wliere 
there was every shade of color to mollify the 
prejudice that it excites. Li every laborer the 
fugitive found a friend ; for the freeman feels 
degraded to have a slave labor by his side. 
So the fugitive never came back, and most of 
the slave ventures into California were perfect 
failures. 

Very soon it was obvious that men of Noi*th- 
ern and Western birth outnumbered the South- 



342 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, erners. Now it happened, as we have shown, 
,__^___^ that Southern notions concerning labor were 
1849- early unpopular. Still the old Democratic 
"^ ■ party training had been very thorough, Avhich 
treated every thing of Southern origin as almost 
sacred. So here, as elsewhere, the South blus- 
tered and assumed every thing, while the North 
and the West succumbed, partly from habit, 
and partly because they had not come on a 
political errand, and did not expect to stay. 

A curious anomaly was the result. The 
State with a marvellous unanimity declared 
against the chosen and peculiar institution of 
the South ; yet Southern men bullied and ruled 
the community in every other respect, at their 
sovereign will. 

Some strong conservative influences, some 
powerful elements of improvement, were at 
work in this motley mass. The accumulation 
of property by a man of any character made 
him a better friend of law and order ; for prop- 
erty is always a stringent conservator. The 
newspapers, not so much by any bold denun- 
ciation of wrong as by simply exposing it, were 
doing a good work. They ventilated crime, 
and that is often enough to check its growth, 
which craves darkness and secrecy. Then tliere 
were eccentric men who made the circuit of the 
mining camps, preaching in quaint, unstudied 
language, summoning men to repentance at 



CONSERVATIVE INFLUENCES. 343 

the risk of all abuse and insult. In tlie cities chap. 

XXIV 

they gathered their meetings on the plazas, or ._^_] 
at the doors of the most thronged gambling- 1849- 
saloons, whose inmates, very likely in a fit of 
sudden resj^ect for religion, would pass around 
the hat for the preacher's benefit. These ear- 
nest, humor-loving, quick-witted street-preach- 
ers consorted well with the earnest, excited, 
rollicking times, and they did more good than 
at first might be supposed. Their exhortations, 
heard by fragments amid the oaths and the din 
of the gambling-table, may have summoned 
many a conscience, that seemed dead, to life 
again. 

But of less doubtful power, of a force to 
which society soon responded unmistakably, 
was the influence of the undemonstrative Chris- 
tian men sprinkled through the mas^ of immi- 
grants — men who never lost the memory of 
home, who cherished the early truths that in- 
spired their fathers, who were true to early 
vows, and faithful to their religion. Such, 
among the distant foot-hills, in the wildest set- 
tlements, and in all the cities, gathered the scat- 
tered children into Sabbath-schools, and formed 
the nuclei of religious associations that have 
since built churches, started good schools, res- 
cued the Sabbath, and given to society its 
wholesome, healthful tone. 

Good men, who felt at all at home here, 



344 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, regarded the magnificent proportions of the 

, ■ State with pride. It enjoyed a far wider range 

1849- of climate than its bounding parallels of lati- 
^^'^^' tude would suggest ; jet few places on the globe 
are favored Avitli so equable a temperature the 
year through as its commercial and popular 
capital. The mines clearly were to be the 
State's first source of wealth ; if they held out 
as they promised, they could not fail to attract 
a vast emigration. The few experiments upon 
its soil showed that at an earl}'- future day 
there would be no need of importing supplies 
of food to feed all that would come. As popu- 
lation increased, wages must diminish, and then 
no condition would be lacking to encourage 
manufactures and the arts. 

Then the grand position ! Seated by the 
sea, midway between Euroj)e and Asia, on the 
road that Atlantic sails most naturally take 
to reach China or Ja2:)an, with a harbor not 
surpassed on the globe, and that without any 
considerable rival on the coast through a 
stretch of latitude greater than from Newfound- 
land to Cuba ; midway between the climates 
which it enjoyed so mixed, that apples and figs, 
wheat and olives ripened side by side, and 
summer and winter require a little difference of 
clothing; midway between "the peoples," who, 
meeting here, made the metropolis cosmopoli- 
tan, and in the same mining-camp conferred in 



THE GRAND POSITION. 345 

lialf-a-dozen languages ; midway of the marts chap. 
and harvest-fields of the world, it required no 1_^_" 
enthusiasm to make the dullest inquirer of her i849- 
destiny anticipate a wonderful future for Cali- 
fornia. 



34:6 THE UISTOllY OF CAUFOENIA, 



CHAPTER XXV. 

AFTER THE ADMISSION. 

CHAP. It is next proposed to sketch tlie growth of 

^_L the State from the date of its admission (1850), 

1850- until a great uprising of the people, constituting 
a thorough radical reformation of politics and 
morals, once more arrested general attention, 
and set older communities to speculating upon 
the future of California — in short, until the 
Vigilance rule in San Francisco, of 1856. 

As a whole, during these six years, the course 
of the people was upward : the State grew in 
population, in wealth, in improvements. But 
in one respect there was no visible growth. 
Justice fell into bad company. Shameless men 
managed public affairs, especially in the cities, 
and society did not keep pace with commerce 
and mining. Or rather, the conservative ele- 
ment was so overlaid that it was hidden ; yet 
it was growing all the while, and when the 
burden became too heavy to be borne, it eman- 
cipated itself. 

The mines did not give out. The croakers 
had said they would — had prophesied that in 



THE YIELD OF THE MIKES. 347 

five years they would be exhausted, and then cfiap. 
the population would vanish as it had come. 
Sir Roderick Murchisoii, in September, 1850, i850- 
endeavored, in an article in the Quarterly ^ ' 
Heview, to show that in all probability the 
gold washings of California would soon be ex- 
hausted at the rapid rate they were being 
worked, and he laid down the proposition that 
no gold-bearing veins in the solid rock could 
be wrought with profit. Fortunately for his fame, 
that distinguished geologist did not make very 
definite his prediction. The placers yielded 
more abundantly in 1851 and 1852 than they 
did in 1850. 

The entire gold-yield, from 1848 to 1856 in- 
clusive, has been variously estimated at from 
four hundred and fifty to six hundred millions 
of dollars. Hittell, who thinks the lower esti- 
mate the more nearly correct, distributes the 
yield among these years as follows : — 

In 1848, ten millions of dollars ; in 1849, 
forty millions; in 1850, fifty millions; in 1851, 
fifty-five millions; in 1852, sixty millions; in 
1853, sixty-five millions; in 1854, sixty millions; 
in 1855, fifty-five millions; in 1856, fifty-five 
millions. The same author holds that in 1850 
there were fifty thousand miners at work ; if so, 
each could have averaged but one thousand dol- 
lars for that year — which, considering the cost 
of living and of travel, was scarcely the fortune 



348 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

oiiAP. that the eag-er emio-rant barejained for wlieu he 

XXV. o O to 



185G. 



left his home. 
1850- At first, the gold was mostly taken from the 
bars of the rivers, which constituted the " wet 
diggings," or the ravines which were known 
as " dry diggings." But in summer, many of 
the rivers shrank to mere threads, and by de- 
grees the gold was traced far away from their 
banks. Yet water was essential in the process 
of separating the metal from the dirt, and either 
the auriferous soil and gravel must be brought 
to the river, or the river brou2:ht to them. The 
enterprising miners thought the latter the 
cheaper plan, so many a river was turned out 
of its bed, and conveyed in canals to the spot 
where it was wanted. High up on the mountain- 
sides dams were built, and the waters, as they 
gushed from the springs, imprisoned in reservoirs. 
Thence they were led by gentle declivities across 
the slopes of the foot-hills, over deep ravines and 
river-beds, in flumes sustained on trestle-work 
bridges. They were distributed by branching 
ditches in all directions, and afforded at a fixed 
price for the inch in an abundant supply to the 
miners; thus annihilating the distinction be- 
tween wet and dry diggings, and substituting 
for the cradle and rocker the " long tom," and 
for that, in turn, the sluice-box. These canals, 
and the long skeleton bridges supporting their 
aqueducts at immense heights, added a new and 



IMPKOVEMENT IN MINING PI10CESSE3. 349 



curious feature to the landscape, and gave an chap. 
impression of improvement not justified by tlie ^_^.^ 
wildness everywhere discernible on a closer isso- 
look. ISTor V7as the amazement of the traveller 
abated when he learned that these costly enter- 
prises, valued, at the close of 1856, at eleven 
millions of dollars, were built with the miners' 
own money, and almost exclusively without 
the employment of foreign capital. 

The general extension of the system of water 
ditches made way for another improvement. 
In 1852, Edward E. Mattison, of Nevada Coun- 
ty, and formerly of Connecticut, revolutionized 
the whole business, and restored great value to 
many an abandoned field by introducing the 
hydraulic hose. This was the application of 
a stream of water conveyed from a height 
through strong pipes and a flexible hose, and 
directed upon the face of hills in which the gold 
was scattered in minute particles. Before this 
hydraulic force, large hills were entirely broken 
down and the lighter debris washed away 
through sluice-l^oxes, where riffles detained and 
quicksilver caught the precious metal. 

It was early discovered that in a certain 
white quartz, very abundant in Tuolumne and 
Mariposa counties, especially on the tract 
bought by Fremont from Alvarado, in 1846, 
there w^as gold plainly visible to the naked eye. 
The placer miners looked covetously on the 



350 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, sparkling points or seams, but generally pro- 
,__^_^ nounced it too tiglitly locked in its stony safes 
1851. to be come at with profit. Capital made the 
attempt, however. 

In 1851 the first quartz-crushing mill was 
erected; others quickly followed, the stamps 
being worked in some cases by horse-powei', in 
some by water, and in others by steam. Soon 
there was a rage, especially among foreigners, 
for quartz. Many Englishmen bought up gold- 
bearing quartz veins by the map, sent out costly 
macLinery, gave theorizing superintendents ex- 
orbitant salaries, paid enormous travelling fees, 
lavished their money, and looked for returns 
that would startle the world. Sometimes their 
agents on arriving could not find the purchased 
veins ; sometimes the veins were all right, but 
no water was to be had ; sometimes, where all 
the other conditions were satisfactory, the agents 
failed in practical exj)erience to make unques- 
tionably rich mines pay. Most of the machin- 
ery was found useless for the purposes intended. 
Operations had been commenced when freights 
and the prices of provisions, materials, and 
labor were very high. Full two millions of 
English capital, and not a little American, was 
squandered, and then quartz-crushing at a profit 
was pronounced impracticable, and was gener- 
ally abandoned. Two or three years later that 
business revived again. In 1855 the quartz on 



EXTENT OF inNING IMPE0VEMENT8. 351 

Alison's rancli, near Grass Valley, whicli had chap. 
long been known as very rich, was carefully ._^^__1. 
tested. The result brought quartz-crushing again 1856. 
into favor, started the idle mills, and caused 
others with improved machinery to be erected. 
By the end of 1856 there were one hundred 
and thirty-eight quartz-mills in the State, valued 
at one million seven hundred and sixty-three 
thousand dollars, of which forty-eight were 
driven by steam. There were innumerable 
shafts and adits and tunnels which some- 
times pierced quite through the hills. The hy- 
draulic hose had washed down immense hills, 
and sadly marred the natural beauty of the 
mining region. There were more than forty- 
four hundred miles of artificial watercourses 
widening the area of the miners' operations, and 
though the number of miners had not increased, 
and more and more of the gold was detained in 
California, her annual export of treasure was 
maintained without much variation, from 1851 
to 1856 inclusive, at about fifty millions of dol- 
lars. 

But although the mines were the strong 
magnet that drew immigration, they did not fur- 
nish the principal occupation of those who ar- 
rived. The early immigrants generally tried 
them long enough to learn that digging gold 
was after all quite as hard work as digging 
potatoes. The unrestrained liberty of camp- 



352 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, life soon parted with its first fine flavor, there 

XXV 

was so much druclo-ery mixed with it. Its ex- 
1850- citements early lost their charm, and the calmer 
'^^' sort pined for a steadier kind of employment. 
Every mining camp made a market for vegeta- 
bles, and the cost of transporting them tempted 
those who knew the art to " tickle the earth " 
with hoe and spade, and see if she would 
" laugh with harvests " of root crops. The great 
valleys were already famous for their yield of 
grains; but the Americans had been here for 
three or four years ]:)efore it was generally con- 
ceded that there were over a few hundred acres 
of "vegetable land" in the State. Experiment 
settled the question satisfactorily, and then 
agriculture soon populated the fertile nooks 
near the mines, planted the sheltered slopes of 
the foot-hills with gardens and orchards, and 
l)rought into cultivation the great valleys. 
Money was made more easily, fortunes were 
built up more surely, and scarcely less rapidly, 
by catering to the wants of settlers than by 
huntino- for o-old. 

The census of 1852 reported the wheat crop 
of the State at two hundred and seventy-one 
thousand seven hundred and sixty-three bushels. 
The crop of 1856 was nearly thirteen times as 
great. 

The potato crop of 1852 was quite equal to 
the demand, the average price being one and a 



ADVA]MCE OF AGRICULTURE. 353 

half dollars per busliel. But in the supply and cit.\p. 
prices of farm produce and garden truck, there ^^^ 
continued o-reat fluctuations. The onion-fields isso- 

-1 or » 

of 1851 and 1852 made their owners rich ; the '^*'" 
same fields in 1853 and 1854, witli excellent 
crops, ruined their owners. The average price 
of two hundred pounds of wheat flour at San 
Francisco was, in January, 1851, sixteen dol- 
lars; of 1852, eleven dollars; of 1853, twenty- 
six dollars ; of 1854, ten and a quarter dollars ; 
of 1855, nine dollars ; of 1856, eight dollars 
and sixty-two cents. Attention was early at- 
tracted to the facilities of the southern and cen- 
tral parts of the State for producing wine. The 
census of 1850 reported fifty-eight thousand 
and fifty-five gallons of wine made in California, 
and no other State in the Union made as much. 
The number of vines was quadrupled in 1856. 
The land available for cultivation, aside from 
swamp and overflowed regions, was estimated at 
forty-one and a half millions of acres. Of these, 
one in every three hundred and seventy-six was 
under cultivation in 1852 ; and one in every 
seventy in 1856. Of animal food, from the be- 
ginning there was plenty; but as late as 1856 
none of the great staple, cereal, or root crops 
were equal to the demand; yet the conclusion 
had been reached by intelligent observers that 
California, considering her limited amount of 
arable land, was without a rival in her capacity 

23 



354 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

ciTAP. of grain production — tliat she produced wheat 

J^_^__, and the other small grains " in larger quanti- 

1850- ties to the acre, of better quality, with more 

■ certainty and less labor, than any other country 

in the known world." 

The high prices of labor kept back manufac- 
tures, and only those were developed which 
populous new lands summon into existence. 
The saw-mill, herald and pioneer of most set- 
tlements, lagged behind population here. In 
1856 there were three hundred and seventy- 
three of them in the State, erected at a cost of 
two and a half millions of dollars, cutting into 
lumber the exhaustless forests of the coast 
range and Sierra Nevada. There were one 
hundred and thirty-one grist-mills, fourteen iron 
foundries, and eighteen tanneries. Ship-build- 
ing was as yet in its infancy. 

Commerce reaped a splendid harvest from 
California during this period. Almost every 
thing eaten or worn here was imported until 
1851. In 1852 the vessels arriving at and de- 
parting from San Francisco averaged more than 
seven a day. In 1853 the imports of San Fran- 
cisco were valued at thirty-five millions of dol- 
lars. The flour and meal bill of this importing 
people was five millions of dollars ; its butter 
bill four millions, and its lumber bill the same. 
Its exports were a few hides and over fifty-seven 
million dollars worth of gold. The vessels ar^ 



COJIIMERCE OF SAN FRANCISCO. 355 

riving and departing that year registered one chap. 
million one hundred and sixty-seven thousand ,___^ 
four hundred and thirty-three tons — greater i850- 
than the tonnage of Boston three years later. ^^°^* 

Indeed, commerce overdid itself that year. 
It was considerably less in 1854 ; still less in 
1855 ; and less yet in 1856 ; and still San 
Francisco, at the last date named, was fourth 
in the list of American cities for its tonnasje. 
New York, Boston, and New Orleans only ex- 
ceeded it ; Philadelphia could not claim half its 
amount. It must be remembered, however, 
that this vast fleet was not, nor any consider- 
able portion of it, owned here. 

The Bay of San Francisco was lively in those 
days. Long wharves thrust themselves over 
the flats towards deep water. Their construc- 
tion had cost a million and a half of dollars as 
early as 1850, and fair facilities were furnished 
for tolerably quick dispatch — the great lack 
being fire-proof store-houses. Vessels propelled 
by steam ploughed the bay and rivers, and 
plied up and down the coast. Fortnightly 
steamers arrived and left in 1853, carrying the 
mails and bringing crowds of passengers and 
such freight as could afford to pay the high 
transportation charges of the Isthmus. 

A passion possessed the merchants of the 
Eastern cities to take California ventures. Car- 
goes were bought up and sent out to be sold 



^56 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, on commission so quietly that none but tlie 
^__^ sharpest could keep posted on trade movements. 
1850- Bostonians, New Yorkers, Pliiladelpkians 
^' would not be convinced that the high prices of 
1849 and 1850 mio^ht not suddenly ragje ao;ain 
on a day's notice, and they poured in their 
miscellaneous assortments in spite of the pro- 
tests of correspondents. Money was plenty, 
but goods were plentier. Almost every thing 
was sold on commission or at auction, for rents 
were too high to permit unmarketable articles to 
be stored lono;. Soon it ^vas clear that the 
race was to the swift. If an article was grow- 
ing scarce, the first ship that could get ai'ound 
the Horn w^ith it won the market. So, fleet 
clippers came into fashion, and it was held sim- 
ple madness to freight a slow sailer. 

Throughout the great part of 1852 high 
prices ruled for the necessaries of life. Flour, 
from eight dollars a barrel in March, ran up 
to forty dollars a barrel in November. Storms 
kept the clippers back. Of some things the 
supply was quite exhausted, and the shifts to 
which people were put, were veiy amusing to 
disinterested observers. The Alta new^spaper, in 
July, suddenly came down from a broad, hand- 
some sheet to a small folio, with a page fourteen 
by ten inches in dimensions. The Herald was 
forced to use brown wrapj^ing-paper for its 
issues. 



POPULATION OF THE STATE. 357 

This occasional barrenness of markets did chap. 
isometliing towards stimulating home mauufao- ^ 
tures ; but not much, on account of the rates issu- 
of wages, and the fact that money commanded ' • 
so high an interest. 

The population of California was estimated 
in 1831 at little over twenty-three thousand; 
in January of 1849, at thirty-six thousand, of 
whom thirteen thousand were natives, eight 
thousand from the United States, and five 
thousand from other foreign countries. The 
national census of 1850 reported one hundred 
and seventeen thousand five hundred and thirty- 
eight inhabitants in the new State. In 1851, 
twenty-seven thousand people arrived by sea, 
and more than half of them by way of the Isth- 
mus or the Nicaragua route ; yet the steamers 
carried back more than they brought. If the 
State grew, it was chiefly by means of the large 
overland emio-ration. In 1852, the State census 
showed a population of two hundred and sixty- 
four thousand, four hundred and thirty-five. 
Immigration was double that of the preceding 
year ; about one-third the number that arrived 
departed. Fewer were " going home " to stay. 
In 1853 there arrived fifteen thousand by land, 
and thirt^^-four thousand by sea. The depart- 
ures were, exclusively by sea, tliirty-one thou- 
sand. This was pushing ahead — a gain from 
abroad of eighteen thousand. It was estimated 



358 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, that but one-fifth the whole population were 
J_^_J, women, and but one-tenth children. By the 
1850- close of 1856 the State contained, by estimate, 
"^ ■ over half a million inhabitants. 

Though the Indians were left out in the usual 
business calculations of the people, they played 
no inconsiderable part in the country during 
this period. They made some trouble, required 
much legislation, and were the innocent means 
of pumping much money out of the General 
Government. 

After the spell of the Fathers was dissolved, 
many of the tame ones relapsed into heathen- 
ism, carrying back with them a more positive 
laziness than their ancestors possessed, and a 
surer instinct for thieving. They shrunk into 
retirement during the conquest, and were seldom 
thought of. Domesticated representatives of 
their race were lioused among the pioneers, and 
gangs of them, for wages, hunted for gold. 

The Legislature, at its first session, compli- 
mented them with an act. It had no trace of 
an admission of their title to the land. Their 
villages must not be disturbed, but their rights 
were only those of a tenant. Minor Indians, 
with the permission of their parents, might be 
adopted by the whites. If the Indians were 
abused, they could complain to the justice of 
the peace, but no white person on their testi- 
mony could be convicted. Thejustice must tell 



INDIAN WAES. 359 

tliem wliat tlie law was, and, if they violated chap. 

• XXV 

it, must punish their head men by reprimand, ,„_^_ 
fine, or reasonable chastisement. For stealing 1850. 
they incurred a fine of two hundred dollars, or 
"twenty-five lashes laid on without cruelty." 
Able-bodied Indians found begging, strolling, 
or loitering about places where li(][uor was to 
be sold, could be hired out for four months to 
the highest bidder. To sell them liquor in- 
curred a fine of twenty dollars, or five days' 
imprisonment. The money that was paid as 
fines by Indians, or by whites on Indian ac- 
count, and the wages earned while hired out on 
account of vagrancy, was to go to a mythical 
" Indian fund " of the town. So it will be seen 
that the Indian was treated with a kind of con- 
sideration, and as possessed of rights that white 
men were bound to respect — white men being 
judges. Considering the state of the typograph- 
ical art of that' day, it is not at all significant 
that the compiled statutes of the first three 
years of California legislation scrupulously 
spelled the word Indian with a little i. 

Before the Americans came, there was 
scarcely such a thing known in California as an 
Indian war. Occasionally, when game and fish, 
grasshoppers, acorns and pine-nuts were scarce, 
the hungry Diggers would swoop down upon 
the ranches of the tame Indians, and make off 
with their cattle, which led to arms and a hunt. 



300 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. But witli the admission into the Union, the In- 
dians assumed the condition which ap])ears to 

1850. be normal for them in all new frontier States — 
that is, of frequent hostility. 

Some Americans attempting in 1849 to pene- 
trate the country to the head of the riv^ers, were 
killed by them. They drove back a party of 
explorers from the Trinity River region, and at- 
tacked parties going to and from Oregon. In 
1850, there were hostile movements in Mari- 
posa and Fresno Counties, and some thefts and 
murders committed. Not that the Indians had 
combined, but, as Governor Burnett stated it, 
being impelled by the same causes, they were 
without combination placed in an attitude of 
hostility. They saw the lands, for which the 
General Government showed no haste to treat, 
passing out of their possession ; a people that 
had no sympathy for them crowding into their 
choice places ; diseases thinning their tribes : 
they accepted the notion that they were a 
doomed race. Discouraged and moody, they 
failed to provide for their wants, and. that fail- 
ure in the presence of the whites was far more 
serious than while they had the range of the 
woods, the valleys, the bays, and the rivers. A 
prospect of starvation followed, and to avert it 
came thefts from the settlers. The whites were 
not slow to punish the thieves, nor the Indians 
to aveno-e their wrong's with murder. Volun- 



INDIAN WAKS. 361 

teer companies organized expeditions to quell chap. 
the disturbance ; they failing, the militia were _1^_ 
called out, and then there was a pretty bill of 1850. 
expenses on " Indian war account." Twice 
during 1850 the Governor authorized expedi- 
tions at the State's expense, because of formi- 
dable attacks at points where the emigrant trains 
entered the State. 

At the confluence of the Gila and Colorado, 
the savages on the 23d of April surprised and 
murdered a Mr. Glanton and eleven other men, 
who had established a ferry across the Colo- 
rado. The southern counties, though called on, 
manifested no great desire to form an expedition 
to the scene of slaughter. General Morehead 
raised a party of seventy-five men, conducted 
them to the southeast corner of the State, wait- 
ed a month, and then, by order of the Governor, 
disbanded it, as there were no evidences of its 
bein.Q: needed lono-er. 

William Rogers was authorized by the Ex- 
ecutive, in October, to arm two hundred men, 
and proceed along the trail that leads from 
Salt Lake into El Dorado County, where the In- 
dians had killed several miners, and robbed and 
wounded a number of emigrants. The expedi- 
tion went out, did some skirmishing, lost three 
men, killed sixteen of the Indians, and so re- 
stored peace. 

There were repeated troubles, too, in Mari- 



362 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, posa and Fresno Counties, near the head of the 
San Joaquin. Miners were murdered, their 
cattle, stock, and movables earned off, their 
cabins burned. Sheriff Burney raised a com- 
pany of seventy-four volunteers, pursued the in- 
surgents, overtook them, killed forty or fifty of 
their number, and burned their village, losing 
eight of his own party. 

Indeed, along the whole eight hundred miles 
of wild mountainous frontier, there was a fever- 
ish expectation of trou])le kept up by rumors, 
not always false, of Indian depredations. When, 
by the resignation of Governor Burnett, John 
McDougall became chief Executive in January 
of 1851, he took an early occasion to inform the 
Senate " of the actual existence of an Indian 
war within our borders." 

In the spring of 1852, J. W. Denver, and 
1852. other members of the Legislature, represented 
to the Executive that the Pitt River Indians 
and other Northern tribes were constantly in a 
state of hostility to the whites. They reported 
that in the counties of Shasta, Trinity, Klamath, 
and Siskiyou, since the winter of 1849 and 
1850, two hundred and forty thousand dollars 
worth of property had been destroyed, and one 
hundred and thirty persons murdered by In- 
dians. 

This memorial Governor Bigler transmitted to 
the commander of the Pacific Department of the 



INDIAN WAES. 363 

United States army, complaining that the General chap. 
Government was not doing its duty to the coast. ^_^_^ 
General Hitchcock stated in reply that few 1850- 
instances of late Indian depredations had come 
to his knowledge. Since Major Kearny, in 
June, 1851, chastised the Rogue River Indians, 
he had heard of no trouble until a story was 
published of eight men killed on the Coquilla. 
He instantly sent out a force which killed some 
of the alleged perpetrators of the murders, dis- 
pelled the rest, and destroyed their supplies of 
fish. Afterwards it appeared that the white 
men, who were reported murdered, had escaped 
alive into Oregon, and that the conflict arose 
from their own imprudence. In December, 
1851, he was informed of an outbreak in the 
southern part of the State. Major Heintzel- 
man, with a body of trooj^s, marched against 
the Indians, met, fought, beat them, secured 
the immediate authors of the war, punished 
them, and restored perfect peace. He was 
not aware that troops were needed in any 
particular section of California, though he 
very well knew that isolated cases of rob- 
bery and murder had occurred. He remind- 
ed the Governor that the country was not 
settled from the coast gradually towards the 
interior, but every part of it was suddenly 
penetrated and explored, bringing the two races 
into close proximity over the whole area, and 



3 ('.4 THE IIISTOllY OF CALIFORNIA. 

I MAP. not alons: a froutier line alone. If there had 
.il^,^ really been any delay in sendhig troops to tlie 
1850- coast, it was only because the peculiar tempta- 
tions to desertion made it almost impossible to. 
keep troops together. 

But Redich McKee, U. S. Indian A^ent for 
Northern California, used a difi'erent tone in 
addressing; the Governor. He was informed, 
he said, that in February two men were mur- 
dered, and their house robbed, on the north 
side of the Eel River, some iifteen or twenty 
miles from Humboldt. When the settlers 
heard of it they jumped to the conclusion that 
the murderers were Indians. They organized 
a hunt, and shot down fifteen or twenty de- 
fenceless natives, whom they had no occasion to 
suspect. A week or two later they shot four 
others on suspicion. In the same month an 
Indian boy was deliberately shot by a Missou- 
rian, at Happy Camp, on the Klamath. The 
Indian friends of the boy charged a certain 
white man with being concerned in the murder. 
Alarmed for his safety, the white man collected 
a party, who went up to the Indian village, 
shot all the men and a number of the women, 
and burned their houses. Proceeding two miles 
up the river to Indian Flat, they treated that 
village and its inhabitants in the same way, ex- 
cept that here one man escaped to tell the agent 
the story. In all, between thirty and forty In- 



INDIAN WAE8. 365 

dians were tlius coolly slauoflitered. He sub- chap. 
mitted it to the Governor, whether some meas- J^ 
ures could not be adopted to vindicate the i85o- 
laws of the country and of humanity, and bring 
such desperadoes to punishment. Governor 
Bigler, in reply, called attention to the discrep- 
ancies between the statement of Senator Den- 
ver and the account of Mr. McKee, som,e of' 
whose reflections he thought " an imputation 
on the character of American citizens." " As a 
private intercessor," said the Governor, " be- 
tween American citizens and their savao:e ene- 
mies, consanguinity, and the sentiments which 
it inspires, would incline me to favor the cause 
of my countrymen ; and, as a public magistrate 
chosen by American citizens, I cannot yield my 
approbation to any imputations upon their in- 
telligence or patriotism." Mr. McKee assured 
the Governor that he fully concurred in his re- 
marks touching the progress of civilization — 
" many of them were familiar truisms very pret- 
tily expressed" — still, he must remember that 
if a pack-train were robbed, or a corral broken 
open, the first red-skins that appeared were 
made to pay the penalty, and he cited several 
cases where "consanguinity" had led the whites 
to punish Indians for outrages with which it 
was afterwards clearl}^ proven that none of their 
race had any thing to do. A sharp letter from 
the Governor, " with renewed assurances," and 



366 TIIE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. SO fortli, concluded this suggestive coiTespond- 

XXV. 

ence. 

"Indian Wars" were not popular in tlie 
cities, but tlie}^ were in the lobby of the Legis- 
lature, where the men gathered who furnished 
supplies for expeditions to quell disturbances, 
as well as in the wild regions where the Indians 
occupied choice land that the whites coveted. 

It was a snug bill that was run up on ac- 
count of the raids that punished the Indians, 
and not a whit the less because it was pre- 
sumed that the General Government would pay 
it finally. The "War Debt," by New Year's 
of 1853, was seven hundred and seventy-one 
thousand one hundred and ninety dollars ; after 
that it grew only by the addition of interest. 
The trust in the General Government's gener- 
osity was not disappointed, for Congress, at the 
session of 1854, authorized the Secretary of 
War to ascertain the amount expended by the 
State, and appropriated nine hundred and 
twenty-four thousand two hundred and fifty- 
nine dollars to pay it. There was a hitch 
about the interest due after the date of adjust- 
ment, and the money was not paid for some 
time. The State debated a good deal, wanting 
more money, and legislated some in hopes to 
get more; then a commission was sent to Con- 
gress, but no new action was taken by that 
body, which already had dealt very liberally 



THE INDIAN RESERVATIONS. 367 

in the matter. From tliat time onward, the chap. 

XXV 

General Government with its own troops quell- ,_^^_J. 
ed all Indian disturbances, and found but few i850- 

-n 1856. 

to quell. 

Its early agents made treaties with the In- 
dians, as if they had a title to the land, but the 
United States Senate rejected them, and, as 
Mexico and Spain had done, ignored the Indian 
claim. That, moreover, was the Government's 
general policy with all savages who, like those 
of California, had lost their tribal character. 
Soon it was urged that their hunting-grounds 
were destroyed, the rivers ruined for salmon- 
jSshing, by the miners, and the forests, mth 
their store of acorns and nuts, cut down. It 
was pleaded that, for humanity's sake, they 
should be gathered upon reservations. So mili- 
tary posts were established with farming lands 
around each, and the Government agents were 
authorized to gather them in. The Tehon 
Reservation was established in 1853, in Los 
Angeles County; Nome Lackee, in 1854, in 
Tehama County; Klamath, in 1855; Mendo- 
cino, in 1856 — each containing twenty-five thou- 
sand acres; Fresno and King's River Farms, 
of two thousand acres, in 1854, and Nome 
Cult Farm, of five thousand acres, in Tehama 
County. Farming was the chief emj^loyment 
on all of them ; at Mendocino, fishing also was 
extensively practised. 



308 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKIsIA. 

CHAP. The Reservation system was a costly, and 
■^■^^" not very successful experiment ; to collect the 
1850- Indians was not the easiest part of it. The 
^^^^- tame or Mission Indians still loitered in consid- 
erable numbers at the south, about the sites 
of the old missions. They lived in families and 
villages by themselves, and were the willing 
helpers of the whites, for small wages harvest- 
ing their crops and treading their wine-presses. 
Others engaged as servants of the native Cali- 
fornians, or hired out as miners, and were wel- 
come help to companies that had capital and 
lacked laborers. Then the wild Indians, who, 
unless very hungry, or maddened by the at- 
tempts of the whites to steal their children, 
were almost equally harmless, even if willing 
to go to the Reservations during the famine 
months, pined for their freedom when the for- 
ests and the rivers abounded with food, and 
were apt to take it. The more restless and 
bold sometimes drifted as far east as the Sierras, 
or even beyond, then swayed back again to the 
midst of the settlements. Perhaps this frequent 
shifting of location accounts in part for the ex- 
traordinary discrepancies concerning their num- 
bers, which Colonel Henley estimated, in 185G, 
as high as sixty-one tliousand six hundred ; yet 
not more than ten thousand were gathered at 
the Reservations. 

The Chinese figured largely in the politics 



THE CHU^TESE. 369 

of the State, tlioii2:li tliev Lad no vote, and no chap. 

. . " XXV 

standing as citizens. Tempted l>y gold out of ,1_^^_, 
tlieir " Central Kingdom/' whose records give 1850- 
tliem a national and imperial existence contem- 
porary with, the Prophet Isaiah, they began to 
arrive, but not very numerously, in 1850. By 
the spring of 1852 there were ten thousand of 
them (almost exclusively males) in the State; 
and by the close of that year, perhaps eighteen 
thousand. Most of them went to the mines ; 
but there were also laborers, peddlers, laun- 
derers, and merchants in their number, who 
stayed by the cities. A few came as coolies, 
but that system of servitude was found unprof- 
itable, and soon abandoned. 

At first they were welcomed as a picturesque 
addition to the peculiarities of the country. 
The barbaric feature tliey contributed was a 
source of pride to the people. Kich or poor, 
they adhered to their own costume. Their long 
braided queues, their blue frocks, red sashes, 
and wooden shoes, the jingling anklets of plated 
silver worn by their females, the Americans 
were proud to point out to strangers as tokens 
that the wealth of their land was arousing even 
the drowsy Asiatics. Besides, every Chinaman 
was a silent witness that the Indies were just 
to the west, and that this was the highway for 
their wealth from the East of the ancients to 
the true East of the moderns. The cleanliness, 

24 



370 THE inSTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, politeness, and unobtrusive good behavior of 
the Chinese were in every pioneer's mouth, 

1850- The Chinese restaui'ants were commended for 
' their fresh and novel delicacies, as well as for 
their scrupulous neatness. But this did not 
last long. The miners early took a fright. 
These pagan strangers were happy and content 
on three or four dollars a month, and the free 
passage to and from the country. Even such 
small wages were princely, compared with any 
they had at home, and the " honest miners " of 
European descent feared that Asia would dis- 
gorge such a horde upon their gold-fields that 
the original possessors would be starved out. 

Governor Bigler, who was quick to take a 
hint from a controlling class of voters, sound- 
ed the alarm in a messaoje to the Leorislature of 
1852. He submitted that measures must be 
adopted to check the tide of immigration from 
Asia, and keep away " coolies," who intended 
to take away all they made. He suggested a 
tax on Chinamen, and that Congress be memo- 
rialized for a law prohibiting their working in 
the mines. 

Though the Legislature did not respond to 
the Governor's suggestion, its effect was a sud- 
den and almost entire cessation of immigration 
and of importation of goods from China. In 
the following year the subject was again early 
before the Legislature. The Committee on 



185G. 



THE CHINESE. 3T1 

Mines, to wliicli it was referred, had an in- chap. 

. ^ XXV 

terview with leading Chinese merchants, who ._^_ 
advised that a tax be laid upon their country- 1850- 
men in the mines, and promised to exert their 
influence to make its collection easy, arguing 
that such a tax would be productive enough to 
make their presence desirable in the several 
counties. They explained the organization that 
had been established here for the benefit of 
their countrymen. All but a score or two of 
the Chinese in the State were from the province 
of which Canton is the capital. They divided 
the province into departments, and for each de- 
partment a house was built in San Francisco, 
and presided over by two " heads," who were 
elected by the Chinese from that department. 
The house was a hotel, a hospital, a post-ofiice, 
and assembly-room, all in one. A committee 
of merchants, elected by the people, served with- 
out pay, as advisers to the heads, and decided 
matters in dispute between them and the mem- 
bers. On arriving in port, the immigrants go 
to the house of the department from which they 
come, are registered by the clerk, pay each a tax 
of ten dollars, and then are entitled to all the 
benefits of the association. The houses lend 
money to their poor, send the sick back to China, 
if they wish it, and see that none i-eturu with- 
out having paid their debts. The clerks keep a 
registry of the names and residence of members, 



372 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, and gather up tlieir votes for company officers 
_■ tlirouo;li messen2:ers. Tlte mercliants assured 

1850- the committee that (contrary to the prevailing 
opinion), although at first some came under 
contracts with employers in China, the custom 
was abandoned as unprofitable. Most came 
now, they said, their own masters, and with 
their own means. Some had hired money to 
come with, and pledged their property or their 
wages, for a certain time, as security, or pledged 
their children as slaves in the event of non-pay- 
ment. 

The legislation of the year resulted in an 
amendment to the law " for the protection of 
foreigners," which required a license of four 
dollars a month to entitle any person not a citi- 
zen (except California Indians) to work in the 
mines, the proceeds to be divided between the 
State and county treasuries. 

The law was enforced only on the Chinese. 
They showed no haste to buy the license^ but, 
when fairly caught, paid the fee with meekness. 
It was not long before the county tax-payers 
discovered that there was a compensation in the 
unwelcome presence of the Chinese, since what 
they contributed saved several counties from 
bankruptcy. Then the candid confessed that, 
with their pans and rockers, and hustled out 
of any good claim they were lucky enough to 
find by the covetous whites, these strangers 



THE CHIKESE. 3*7 3 

worked principally the tailings, and abandoned chap. 
claims on which Americans could not make a ,_1^_^ 
living. Though their countrymen imported 1850- 
much of their food, they spent their money 
pretty freely, and so added to the wealth of the 
State in more ways than one or two. 

The politicians set their faces against the 
Johns, but the people generally treated them 
kindly, and they must have sent home fair re- 
ports, for the immigration rather increased, and 
at the end of 1856 their numbers in the State 
were estimated at over thirty-eight thousand. 
The Supreme Court having decided that they 
were ^' colored," their testimony against white 
men was not taken, and they were isolated in 
the midst of the multitude. As a class, they 
had no reputation to spare for truth-telling. 
Believing in no God but their ancestors, and 
doubtful if even th.ey were not annihilated by 
death, it was difficult to shape an oath solemn 
enough to bind them when they testified con- 
cerning each other. On very important occa- 
sions a sort of creed, printed on tissue-paper in 
Chinese characters, was burned as they lifted 
the right hand, and then, if ever, it was thought 
they might be trusted to some extent. 

They erected a temple in San Francisco, and 
set up an idol, hideous with bright paint and 
brazen ornaments ; but if strangers handled his 
apparel or his person they manifested no of- 



3T4 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, fence. On New Year's Day they made a terri- 
ble din with gongs, drums, and bells in the 

1850- temple, and set tables in their houses for such 
"^ ' "gods" as there might be, over against the ta- 
bles of refreshment for guests. They observed 
no Sabbath, and any thing like religious wor- 
ship the closest observation failed to discover. 
They were inordinate gamblers for very trifling 
stakes, and excessively fond of theatrical enter- 
tainments. The appointments of their stage 
were of the rudest kind, the acting, whether of 
tragedy or comedy, equally farcical in foreign 
eyes, the singing nasal, the orchestra deafening 
with lamentable monotones from gongs, reeds, 
stringed instruments, and anvils of hard wood. 
They puffed at their long, shallow-bowled reed 
pipes incessantly when at leisure, sipped tea 
night and day when in-doors and awake, and 
walked single file the streets, giving just half 
the walk to those they met. A cheery man, 
meeting them in desolate places, saluted with 
" How are you, John ? " and the unvarying re- 
ply was, with a jerking nod, " How are you, 
John?" They were polite, not obsequious, un- 
obtrusive, and quietly enjoyed their rights with- 
out giving oifence in the manner. They had 
little dealings with the whites, purchasing of 
them, however, whenever they could make a 
good bargain for their simple wants. Their 
merchants had the respect of the trade. Their 



THE CinNESE. 375 

fishmongers competed only with a few Genoese chap. 
and Maltese in San Francisco. Their purifiers >_^ 
of dirty linen interfered mostly with machine- 1850- 
washers. As house-servants the Irish girls 
soon drove them from the kitchen. In the 
country a few were employed on farms and in 
gardens on wages. But the great body " created 
values out of nothing," in the "exhausted" 
placers, on their own account, or ministered to 
the wants of their own people as petty trades- 
men. 

When they died, they were buried, after 
funeral feasts and ceremonies more or less im- 
posing, according to their position and wealth. 
When the flesh of their dead bodies was decay- 
ed, their bones were gathered up by the agents 
of the companies, polished, preserved in com- 
pact form, and in due time returned to rest in 
Chinese soil. 

In 1855, Governor Bigler argued to the 
Legislature the right of the State to prohibit 
their landino- on its shore ; he was shiverinsr 
yet at the spectacle he had evoked of an over- 
whelming eruption from Asia. But the treaty 
stipulations of the United States with China 
were too well known to the people, and Cali- 
fornia was spared any such disgraceful legisla- 
tion as he proposed. 

Generall}^, they lived in peace and harmony 
with each other. A notable exception occui'red 



376 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 

CHAP, on a bar of tlie Stanislaus, in the fall of 1850, 
where two mining companies quarrelled about 
1850- a claim. After one collision, both j)arties ral- 
^^^^' lied their friends, and one of them ordered up 
one hundred and fifty muskets with bayonets 
and cartridges from San Francisco. Not know- 
ing how to use them, when they came, they 
hired some white men to teach them, whom 
they afterwards said they understood were sent 
up by the Governor to make sure of fair play, 
and to prevent interference by the whites. All 
things being ready, the party with the muskets, 
nine hundred strong, assailed the enemy, who 
were twelve hundred strong* and armed with 
Chinese weapons. The bold assailants fired 
and ran ; and the enemy, panic-stricken, ran the 
other way. Two were killed and two wounded. 
The sheriif intervened, and the war ended, cost- 
ing, during its brief continuance, very much 
less money, probably, than the newspapers of 
the day reported. 

The negro, though the staple topic of Con- 
gressional legislation, did not much trouble 
that of California. Governor Burnett, in 1851, 
advised the exclusion of colored persons from 
• the State. Tlie people were wiser than their 
Governor, and would consent to no such folly. 
However, they sacrificed to the fuming Chivalry 
so far as to deny their citizenship and pi'ohibit 
them from bearing testimony concerning whites 



NEGEOES !]!«■ CALIFORNIA. ' 377 

in the courts. Tliis last was a cruel wrong to chap. 
humanity, and the jealous whites suffered their _^ 
share of its evil ; for, though a negro saw a man, 1850- 
white or black, murdered by a negro, his lips 
were sealed in the witness-box, and justice 
cheated of her penalty. 

At the legislative session of 1853, W. C. 
Meredith, a Democrat, from Tuolumne, present- 1853. 
ed a memorial to the Assemljly, signed by ne- 
groes, asking the repeal of the clause prohibit- 
ing colored persons to testify. Instantly one 
member moved to throw the memorial out of 
the window. Another did not want the journals 
" tarnished with such an infamous document.^' 
The chairman reluctantly ruled the motion out 
of order, and an appeal was taken. Finally, 
in the greatest excitement, the petition was 
unanimously rejected, and the clerk instructed 
not to file it. The tempest was too large for 
the teapot, and the storm was not entirely sub- 
dued for several days. 

As to the other classes of population, the na- 
tive Californians early retired into obscurity. 
Some few allied themselves with American fami- 
lies, yet gradually lost their influence in public 
affairs ; and, annoyed by squatters and defraud- 
ed of their lands, grew poorer and poorer, till 
nothing but the shadow of their old possessions 
remained. Mexico, and many parts of South 
America, were thickly represented, but owing 



378 THE HISTORY OF CALirOR:MA. 

CHAP, to their Spanisli tongue, they did not much mix 
■ with the rest, except in the mines. 

The Europeans and white Americans frater- 
nized in business and in general interests, and 
were soon scarcely distinguishable, except by 
their pronunciation of the common English lan- 
guage. These produced the gold, made tlie 
valleys bow and wave with grain, beckoned 
commerce from every sea, set the busy wheels 
of mills to humming, neglected public affairs 
till they grew desperate, summoned wealth to 
their hands like genii, and spent it like princes, 
built magnificent wagon-roads over the moun- 
tains, and forced that wondrous crop of towns 
and cities, some of which grew up with amazing 
rapidity, while others blossomed with a name 
and straightway died. 



GEOWTH AND HINDRANCES. 379 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

GROWTH AND HINDRANCES OF THE CITIES AND TOWNS. 

San Feancisco had outgrown the anticipa- 
tions of the most sanguine. In 1856 it wore 
the aspect of a hurriedly-built city, whose peo- 
ple had faith in its noble destiny. It had many 
miles of graded streets, a fair system of sewer- 
age planned and partly put into use, many sub- 
stantial store-houses of brick, wharves sufficient 
to meet the demand of commerce, churches, 
school-houses, and the comfortable homes of 
families thoroughly satisfied to spend their 
lives in California. Its eastern front had ex- 
tended half a dozen blocks' width into the bay, 
and the principal business was conducted on 
ground made by the transfer of the sand-hills 
to the flats, or by piling and bridging far be- 
yond the original beach — a necessity imposed 
by the closeness with which the hills of rock 
crowded the bay. 

The city had reached its condition of pros- 
perity through very severe trials and in spite 
of thick difiiculties. 

A great deal of trouble was caused by the 



1856. 



380 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, desperate, reckless villains who flocked to tlie 
^_^_' city from all parts of tlie world. Many of the 
1851. best citizens formed themselves into a Commit- 
tee of Vigilance, and, because the courts could 
not or would not punish crime, undertook 
themselves to administer justice. On the 11th 
of June, 1851, between one and two o'clock in 
the morning, they executed John Jenkins, by 
hanging him to the cross-beam of the old adobe 
building on the plaza. Jenkins had robbed a 
store, and had been tried and found guilty by 
the committee. On the 11th of July they exe- 
cuted James Stuart, who murdered the sheriff 
of Auburn, and attacked and robbed a man in 
his own store on Montgomery Street. On the 
24th of August they recaptured and hung Whit- 
taker and McKenzie, who had been taken from 
them, after trial, by the authorities, and lodged 
in jail. Two weeks later, believing that they 
had taught incendiaries, robbers, and murder- 
ers a lesson that they would not dare to forget, 
• the committee, without disbanding, suspended 
operations and left justice to the courts. 

Besides these social disturbances, fires, negli- 
gent municipal officers, and swindling schemers 
had done mischief enough to destroy a place 
less tenacious of life. It was estimated that 
sixteen million dollars worth of property was 
consumed by five fires within eighteen months, 
while the population numbered but thirty thou- 



GEOWTH OF SAJSr FEANCISCO. 381 

sand. The most disastrous of these confla2:ra- chap. 
tions occurred May 4th, 1851, the anniversary ,_1_^ 
of a great fire the preceding year. The first isoi- 
stroke of the fire-bell aroused the whole city, ^^'^^' 
for wherever, in the compact business blocks* 
the ravaorer becjan, few felt their lio:ht, combus- 
tible buildings safe. The foremost men iu the 
town organized themselves into fire companies. 

On the ruins of these conflagrations build- 
ings rose again before the ashes were fairly cold, 
each time a little better than the preceding, and 
with more careful precautions to render them 
proof against fire. The immense amount of 
business to be attended to gave the people an 
elasticity of sj)irit that made them recover cour- 
age with surprising haste, after apparently 
crushino; misfortunes. 

E,eal estate kept rising in value till 1854. 
Then many causes combined to make it fall 
and continue falling till the summer of 1858. 
The speculators had glutted the market with 
goods, and money grew scarce. Wages fell, 
rents fell, and real estate tumbled with the rest. 
The increasing uncertainty of land titles, the 
exorbitant taxes, and the unsatisfactory condi- 
tion of state and city finances, kept the latter 
from risino; ao;ain. Claims of astonishincr ab- 
surdity were set up for property that had been 
in the quiet possession of occupants who never 
dreamed of a flaw in their titles. 



382 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORliTIA. 

CHAP. Gigantic for their impudence as well as tbeir 
^ ■ extravagance were tlie claims of Jose Yves 
1853. Limantour, a Frenchman by birth, that were 
presented to the Board of Land Commissioners 
in 1853. He claimed that when trading on 
the coast ten years before, he had advanced to 
Governor Micheltorena merchandise and money 
for the use of the Departmental Government. 
For these considerations he professed that the 
Governor had granted to him four square 
leagues of land on the San Francisco peninsula, 
embracing about half of what had become the 
most valuable part of the city ; also Alcatraz 
and Yerba Buena Islands and the Farralones, 
and lands lying elsewhere in the State, cover- 
ing in all more than a hundred square leagues. 
The Board of Commissioners confirmed the 
claims. The incensed people saw the gloomy 
prospect, and doubted if it were not the most 
hazardous of all investments to purchase real 
estate in San Francisco. 

An appeal was taken to the United States 
District Court, where counsel for the United 
States contended that all the documents on 
which the claimant relied were f dse, forged, and 
fraudulently fabricated long after the pretended 
dates, and after the acquisition of California by 
the United States. Judsre Hoffman rendered 
1858. his decision (1858), reversing the Board's de- 
cree, and rejecting the claims that were still 



HEAVY CITY TAXES. 383 

pressed, as invalid. He added that tlie proofs chap. 
of fraud were as conclusive and irresistible as ,_.^_^ 
tlie attempted fraud itself was flagrant and au- 1858. 
dacious. Following is a quotation from his 
opinion, from which may be inferred what a 
grievous nuisance was abated, when the claims 
were rejected : — 

" Whether we consider the enormous extent 
or the extraordinary character of the alleged 
concessions to Limantour, the official positions 
and the distinguished antecedents of the princi- 
pal witnesses who have testified in support of 
them, or the conclusive and unanswerable 
proofs by which their falsehood has been ex- 
posed — whether we consider the unscrupulous 
and pertinacious obstinacy with which the 
claims now before the court have been persisted 
in — although six others presented to the Board 
have long since been abandoned — or the large 
sums extorted from property-owners in this city 
as the price of the relinquishment of these 
fraudulent pretensions ; or, finally, the conclu- 
sive and irresistible proofs by which the perju- 
ries by which they have been attempted to be 
maintained have been exposed, and their true 
character demonstrated, it may safely be affirmed 
that these cases are without a parallel in the 
judicial history of the country." 

Exorbitant taxes for State and city purposes 
were paid, and with a feeling that, in spite of 



384 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEXIA. 

CHAP, the taxes, tlie city was nearing insolvency. The 
expenditures of the double county and city 
1856. government for the five years following the 
city's incorporation were more than seven and a 
half million dollars ; and the worst of it was, 
that they had nothing to show for it all in the 
way of public buildings, or other than the most 
elementary improvements. The city's actual 
debt, in 1856, was more than three and a half 
million dollars — nineteen hundred thousand 
of which was funded at six, seven, and ten per 
cent, interest. 

The State, in 1851, had ceded to the cit}^ the 
beach and water lots, and confirmed the sales 
made in virtue of General Kearny's grant, so 
that, with its pueblo inheritance, it had ample 
means to pay all debts,' if the land-stealers 
would but let it alone, and its official guardians 
save it from waste. 

In the early times, large amounts were raised 
for ordinary expenses, on scrip which never 
bore less interest than three per cent, a month. 
As all work for the public was liable to be 
paid in this carelessly issued j>aper, every thing 
that the city ordered done or j^urchased was 
charged at enormous rates. 

One of the city's creditors. Dr. Peter Smith, 
on an account for taking care of its indigent 
sick, declining to exchange his scrip for the ten 
per cent, stock, into Avhich the Legislature 



THE PETER SMITH JUDGMICNTS. 385 

(1851) had autliorized tlie floating debt to be chap. 
converted, recovered judgment against the city, 
and to defray the amount its wharves and cer- i85i- 
tain upland lots v^ere sold by the sheriff. They '^''' 
brought scarcely a twentieth part of their value, 
the belief being that the sales were illegal and 
void. As the sum realized by the sale failed 
to satisfy the judgment, a second and a thii'd 
sale was made of other city property, of an im- 
mense value even then, and of incalculable 
prospective value. For the same reason as be- 
fore, this property brought merely nominal 
price-s. Dr. Smith, or parties holding the scrip 
paid him by the city, subsequently obtained 
other judgments, and the sheriff sold still other 
upland and water lots to satisfy them ; the Com- 
missioners of the Funded Debt meanwhile, 
under the advice of their counsel, Judge Hey- 
denfelt, protesting that the city could give no 
title to the lots offered for sale, since they had 
been conveyed, by ordinance of the Common 
Council, to the Commissioners in trust for the 
benefit of the city's creditors. The protest pre- 
vented corape Lition, but did not avert the sale. 
At one sale (January 30th, 1862) the sheriff 
sold two thousand acres of land within the city 
limits at just such ruinous prices as before, to 
pay Peter Smith judgments. 

An inexplicable muddle came of it. The sales 
were regarded as fiirces at first, but soon they sug- 

25 ^ o 



386 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, nested serious tboughts. When the Commission- 
■ ers of the Funded Debt attempted to raise money 
1851- on the land of their trust, this Peter Smith title, 
JS56. -jij^g ^ poisonous shadow, floated over it, clouding 
their title and depreciating the market value of 
the land. Suit followed suit, and litigation thick- 
ened over the whole matter in a confused web. 
Every attempt to remedy the evil, as all eiibrts 
to prevent it had, only plunged the subject 
into a deeper chaos. The end is not even yet 
reached, though this was early demonstrated — 
that San Francisco was fast being stripped of 
the choicest of her resources. Plunsied to the 
eyes in debt, her means almost wasted, yet her 
citizens cheerful, thriving, and getting rich, 
San Francisco was rushing along like a tough, 
stanch, but very foul ship, with officers who 
would bear a irreat deal of watchino; and some 
very rough and suspicious passengers ; yet with 
tide favorable and a strong wind filling all her 
canvas. 

Sacramento, the second city in the State, 
was prospering notably nnder quite as rugged 
treatment. After the experience of 1850, when 
the place was overflowed by the river, its peo- 
ple raised the grade of the streets five feet, and 
built a levee alono; both river fronts. On the 
3d of November, 1852, a fire destroyed six 
hundred houses, causing: from four to five mil- 
Hon dollars dama2:e. From December 20th, 



MARYSVILLE. 387 

1852, to January 24th, 1853, the city was chap. 
again under water, and still again in April, ^_^^_^ 

1853. It was made the permanent capital I85i- 
of the State in 1854. In July of that year 
another fire swept off five hundred thousand 
dollars worth of property. Spite of this va- 
riety and excess of calamities, the city increased 
with a rapid, wholesome growth under the con- 
Btant stimulus of its great trade with the north- 
ern mines. It had its grievous land troubles, 

too, its oppressive taxation, and its debt, 
amounting, in the fall of 1856, to over a million 
and a half of dollars, 

Marysville, laid out in Decemljer, 1849 (at 
the junction of the Yuba and Feather Rivers, 
where one Cordua, a German, in 1842 had put 
up an adobe building, naming the place New 
Mecklenburg, and afterwards establishing there 
a trading post), had assumed the aspect of a 
busy New England village, with population 
enough to cast nineteen hundred votes at the 
November election in 1856. Its principal streets 
were lined with substantial brick buildings, 
which secured a remarkable immunity from 
fires, though a very destructive one visited it 
on the 31st of August, 1850. Its site had been 
flooded in 1850, but that warnina^ was not 
heeded, and in the sj)ring of 1852 the whole 
business part of the town was under water 
again. The grade of the streets was then 



'^88 THE HISTORY OF CALTFORlsriA. 

CHAP, raised one foot above the liicjliest mark of the 

XXVI • 

^^_^' flood, and the whole city brought to one level. 

1850- A crop of paper cities sprang up around it, com- 
'^ ' peting for its trade — Plumas, Eliza, Veazie 
City, Hamilton, Linda, Featherston, and Yales- 
ton, all which the best maps fail to show, and 
which only local antiquarians are able to indi- 
cate as they pass them. 

Nearly every business house in Nevada was 
burned down March 11th, 1851, destroying 
half a million dollars worth of property. Again, 
on September 7th, 1852, it was scourged with 
fire. In December of that year the heavy rains 
80 hindered the transportation from below that 
the place was threatened with famine. Flour 
was sold at forty dollars a hundred-weight, and 
beef at forty cents a poimd. But it was the 
centre of a rich mining vicinity, and flourished 
maugi'e all its afflictions. By 1853 it was in 
telegraphic communication with Sacramento, 
and in 1855 with Downieville. At the Novem- 
ber election of 1856 it cast a larger vote 
(2,081) than any city in the State, except San 
Francisco and Sacramento. On the 19th of 
July, 1856, came a conflagration that consumed 
four hundred wooden and twenty-two brick 
houses, causino- a damag-e of a million of dol- 
lars, and the lives of ten persons who trusted 
to the brick buildings as fire-proof A month 
later, and two hundred and fifty wooden houses 



185G. 



PLACERVILLE. 389 

were erected on tlie burned ground, and twenty- chap. 
five In-ick ones were begun. ^^ 

Grass Valky — so called because some over- iSaO- 
land emigrants, in 1849, found there the cattle 
that had strayed from them as they rested after 
their tedious journey across the Plains and the 
Sierras, luxuriating in excellent pasture — had, on 
New Year's of 1851, only three or four cabins 
in it. Before the year ended it wa,s one of the 
busiest places in the mountains. It escaped 
fires till September, 1855, when one visited it, 
inflicting damage to the extent of three hun- 
dred and fifty thousand dollars. The famous 
Alison's Ranch quartz mine is three miles from 
the place. In 1855 the men who owned this 
lead ofi'ered to sell it for a thousand dollars, but 
found no purchaser. The first eighteen tons 
of rock taken from it produced twenty-three 
thousand dollars. From October 6th, 1856, to 
1861, the deposits of gold from this mine in the 
mint at San Francisco were nearly a million of 
dollars. 

Placerville — known in early times as " Hang- 
town," in memory of the lynching there of three 
men who were arrested for highway robbery 
and two of them identified as the persons guilty 
of a murder — owed the beginning of its pros- 
perity to the rich gold surface diggings in its 
vicinity ; and its second growth to the fact that 
it was on the most travelled road from the bay 



390 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, to Waslioe. A fire, on the 15tli of April, 1856, 
consumed the lower part of the to\vn, and 

1850- another on the 6th of July almost destroyed it. 

^^^^'- A fire in Weaverville (March 7th, 1853) 
damaged that town one hundred thousand dol- 
lars ; and another (September 7th, 1855), two 
hundred thousand. Yankee Jim's, in Placer 
County, was burned down in June, 1852, and 
Ophir, July 12th, of the same year. This last 
place, as was often the case with mining villages 
where the surface diggings were becoming 
poor, and no other resource presented itself, 
failed to recover from the shock. A fire in 
Stockton (February 21st, 1855) did fifty thou- 
sand dollars damage ; and one in Columbia 
(July 10th, 1854) was figured up at a loss of 
half a million dollars. It was estimated, not 
very accurately, perhaps, that during the three 
years preceding 1853, the losses to California 
by fire amounted to sixty-six millions of dol- 
lars; yet, as the imperfect list cited above 
shows, very destructive fires were numerous 
after that date. 

The towns of the southern coast shared little 
in the general growth, for they were away from 
the main avenues of travel and trade. They 
suffered little, too, from either fire or flood, for 
they were mostly built at leisure, of adobe, and 
under the direction of those who held the tra- 
ditions of the fathers and the Indians concern- 
ins; old-time floods. 



THE CAPITOL ON WHEELS. 391 



It was inevitable tliat these conflagrations chap. 

XXVI 

and drownings should ruin many men finan- ^_ 
cially ; but those who escaped were generous, i850- 
and cheerfully helped up the prostrated, and 
set them on their feet, and many overtook for- 
tune again early. But where so few had family 
ties to bind them to a spot, every lire or other 
calamity that put business into confusion in- 
creased the tendency to drift from town to 
town, from bar to bar, and to " rush " to any 
new diggings that were spoken of in flattering 
terms. 

The Legislature fairly represented this drift- 
ing habit of the times in the v/ay it kept the 
capital of the State trundling about. The first 
two sessions were held at San Jose, though early 
in 1850 the project of removal was agitated. 
Monterey tendered land enough and all its pul)- 
lic buildings to the State for the boon of the 
capital. San Jose sent in several liberal prop- 
ositions, and among the rest the donation of 
a block of a hundred and sixty-eight building 
lots. Colonel Stej^hensou and a business part- 
ner offered to erect, free of expense to the State, 
public buildings worth a hundred thousand 
dollars, under the direction of a legislative com- 
mittee, if the Legislature would make " New 
York of the Pacific" the capital. But General 
Vallejo's offer was the one of most princely aspect, 
as viewed on paper. It was a tender of one hun- 



392 THE niSTollT OF OALIFOEXIA. 

CHAP, dred and fifty-six acres of land on the Straits of 
^^^ Carquines for the sites of public buildings, and 
1850- three hundred and seventy thousand dollars 
^^^^' towards their erection, the money to be paid in 
two years. Senator Broderick, of the commit- 
tee, reported in favor of accepting Vallejo's 
offer, and the Legislature so far concurred as to 
submit the suljject of removal to the people. 

The people clearly cared very little about it. 
On election day there were in nineteen coun- 
ties reported but twelve thousand two hundred 
and ninety-two votes cast on the question, of 
which nearly nine thousand were for removing 
to Vallejo's site. So the third session met 
(January 5, 1852) at Vallejo; and because 
there was no accommodation for the members, 
it adjourned a week afterwards to Sacramento. 
The next session (1853) met at Vallejo, and 
after a month adjourned to Benicia. The fifth 
session (1854) met at Benicia, but before March 
removed to Sacramento, to be removed no 
more, except temporarily, in 1862, when itie 
flood made it impossible to transact business in 
the drowned city, and San Francisco enjoyed 
for a season the legislative presence. 



FILLIBUSTEEISM. 593 



CHAPTER XXVn. 

FILLIBUSTERISM. - 

In those days there was a fi^reat deal said 2^^^; 

'' ^ ^ o ^ XXVII. 

about the "manifest destiny" of the nation to — ., — • 
swallow up by annexation all of the continent ^^J^^r 
between the Gulf of Mexico and the Isthmus, 
and even to include the Sandwich Islands. It 
was an Atlantic idea, of Southern origin ; but 
it ran like an epidemic through the North and 
West. There its most remarkable effect was 
the curious change of sentiment it developed in 
conservative circles — the feeling having grown 
up that, whatever the territory annexed, in a 
fair race slavery would lag, and the new coun- 
try come into the Union free. When the 
"manifest destiny" dogma in its career reached 
the Pacific coast, it bred a perfect rage for prac- 
tical fillibustei'ism in the restless classes. Poli- 
tics had little to do with the matter, but there 
were mines on territory that did not belong to 
us, and that was reason enough for annexing it. 
A leader was at hand, who proved to be one 
of the most notable fillibusters of the century. 
William Walker w^as born in 1824, at Nash- 



394 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKXIA. 

CHAP, ville, Tennessee. He studied medicine, and 
■^^^^^' graduated in it botli at home and in Paris, but 
1850- never j^ractised. He studied law, went to New 
I80G. Orleans, connected himself with the Crescent 
newspaper, moved to California in 1850, and 
became an assistant editor of the San Francisco 
Herald., in which capacity he offended Judge 
Levi Parsons, of the District Court, who fined 
him five hundred dollars for contemjot of court 
in an article he had written. Walker refused 
to pay the fine, and was sent to j^rison. The 
people held an indignation meeting, expressed 
their trust in the press, and resolved that it 
should not be put down for any imaginary con- 
tempt of " courts which cannot l;)e reduced much 
lower than they have reduced themselves," and 
went in a body to console the prisoner. By a 
writ of haheas corpus he was discharged. The 
Legislature took up the matter, and a commit- 
tee recommended Parsons' impeachment, but 
soon the subject was dropped. Walker after- 
wards practised law for a short time in Marys- 
ville, and then took to fillibnstering. 

The province of Sonora was well known to 
be rich in minerals, and to wear very loosely 
the robe of Mexican rule. A scheme was con- 
1853. cocted, in 1853, for its conquest. Money was 
raised by the issue of scrip to be redeemed by 
the first proceeds of the new Government, and 
a vessel procured and fitted out as the pioneer 



walker's schemes of cois^quest. 395 

in tlie unlawful enterprise. General Hitchcock, chap. 

• XXVIl 

who commanded the United States troops on J_^_^ 
the coast, ordered the vessel seized. It was i853. 
done, but the prosecution was pushed with so 
little zeal that she was soon released, much to 
the general's disgust. 

Meanwhile the bark Caroline was fitted out, 
and in her Walker and forty-six men sailed 
on the 16th of October. Landing at La Paz, 
on tlie peninsula of Lower California, the ad- 
venturers kidnapped the governor, hoisted a 
flag of their own, and proclaimed Lower Cali- 
fornia an independent republic. They after- 
wards had a slight brush with the natives, but 
the natives suffered all the loss. Walker was 
now formally elected president by his handful 
of followers, and he appointed a goodly number 
of them cabinet members and to other hiorh 
offices. Then retirins; in their vessel to Mas-da- 
lena Bay, they disappeared for three weeks 
from view. Next they were heard from at 
Encinada, a little south of the California boun- 
dary line, in Lower California, whence they 
sent flaming accounts of their conquests to San 
Diego. 

The news made a great sensation in San 
Francisco among the shiftless, impatient classes; 
and the "dead broke" and desperate came down 
from the mines in greater numbers than could 
be accepted to volunteer as recruits. After 



39G THE HISTORY OF CAIIFORNI.l. 

General Hitchcock's late experience he did not 
feel called upon to meddle, the other authorities 

1853. were glad to get rid of some who were going, 
the newspapers rejoiced in the sensation and 
kept their peace about the morality or legality 
of the expedition, and the people laughed at it 
as a very good joke. On the loth of December, 
the bark Anita sailed with a hundred and 
fifty men or moi'e. Arriving at Encinada, 
Walker by proclamation abolished the repub- 
lic of Lower California, and announced that of 
Sonora, with boundaries embracing both prov- 
inces. He took the presidency himself, and 
gave the vice-presidency to Colonel Watkins 
of the Anita. 

1854. But with all the cattle and corn thiey bought 
with Sonora scrip or confiscated, the president 
could not feed his followers to their taste. 
Some half a hundred of them deserted and 
tried to make their way to San Diego. A few 
were caught, of whom Walker had two flogged 
and expelled, and two others shot for example's 
sake. With about a hundred still faithful to 
him, he set out in March, 1854, overland for 
Sonora, but, harassed by the natives out of all 
supplies, very hungry and quite dispirited, they 
gave that up, and, turning northward, surren- 
dered themselves as prisoners to the United 
States troops. Taken to San Francisco, most 
of them were set at liberty on theii* parole. 



walker's schemes of cokqdest. 307 

Meanwhile, Vice-President Watkins, having chap. 

XXVII 

preceded tliern to San Francisco, had been ar- __^_j 
raisrned before the United States District Court, is54. 
Judge Hoffman presiding, and found guilty of 
setting on foot a military expedition against 
Mexico. He was condemned to pay a fine 
of fifteen hundred dollars. Frederick Emory, 
Walker's secretary of state, pleaded guilty to 
the same charge, and was fined to the same 
amount. Walker himself was afterwards tried 
and acquitted. 

Trouble springing up in Nicaragua, he gath- 
ered some sixty or seventy followers, and left 
in May, 1855, to assist the revolutionary fac- 1855. 
tion. They landed at Realejo, and success soon 
smiled on the side they espoused. Then Walk- 
er began to use his power as a dictator. He 
revoked the charter under which the Vander- 
l)ilt Steamship Company sent its passengers 
across Nicaragua, appointed E. J. C. Kewen 
and two others commissioners to wind up the 
affairs of the company, and gave to Edmund 
Randolph a new charter for twenty-five years' 
time. Hitherto he was but generalissimo of 
the forces ; now he caused himself to be elected 
president of the republic, and he abrogated 
the decree by which slavery had for thirty-t^vo 
years been prohibited. An insurrection took 
place, fomented by the Vanderbilt Company, - 
and joined by several Central American Stater,. 



398 THE JIISTOEY OF OALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. Walker, beino-liarcl pushed, surrendered himself 

xxvii . . . . 

._^^_" m May, 1857, with sixteen of his officers, to the 

1857. United States authorities. Keturning again in 
November to Nicaragua, Commodore Paulding, 
of the United States Navy, compelled him and 
one hundred and thirty-two of his followers to 
surrender. Pi*esident Buchanan had, in his 
message, denounced Walker's filibustering ex- 
pedition, but he condemned Paulding for laud- 
ing his force on foreign soil to extinguish it. 
Walker, freed again, raised more followers in 
the United States, and proceeded to Honduras. 
There he was captured, condemned by court- 
martial, and shot at Truxillo on the 3d of Sep- 

1860. tember, 1860. 

Personally, Walker was a small man, slow in 
his speech, reserved, gray-eyed, freckled, unat- 
tractive, heartless. His confederates in Califor- 
nia were men of very oj)posite traits and prin- 
ciples ; nor is it easy to judge from their 
character what the arch-fillibuster's motive 
was. Some hot ambition fired his cold nature. 
He wished to make a position and a name, not 
in the vulgar way. Indifferent to slavery or 
freedom, he was willino; to use either as it 
would promote his end. Perhaps he dreamed 
of a Southern empire, with slavery as its corner- 
stone, anticipating the attempt of Jefferson 
Davis and his fellow-traitors. It is hardly prob- 
able that the conspirators took him into their 



VIOLATION OF THE NEUTEALITT LAWS. 399 

counsels. More likely, believing that tlie chap. 
American Union would soon embrace all ,_^^_J 
north of the Isthmus, he aspired to shape the i854. 
destinies of whatever land he could conquer by 
proclamation or his sword, in such fashion that 
when the time for annexation should come, he 
would be the Sam Houston of the new State, 
entitled to its first senatorial honors, with a 
prestige that might, perhaps, in time, make him 
chief magistrate of the Union. His reward was 
an early death, and such fame as a pirate wins. 
However, he gave a cheap reputation to some 
very small men who never would have been 
heard of but for him, and some men of char- 
acter were seriously compromised by their con- 
nection with him. * 

Interlacing with the trials of Walker and his 
men were those of the Mexican and French 
consuls at San Francisco, which produced still 
more excitement. The Pacific Military Divi- 
sion was commanded by General John E. Wool, 
who was determined to put down fillibustering. 
The Mexican consul, Mr. Del Valle, under in- 
structions from his Government, prevailed upon 
some five or six hundred persons, mostly French 
or Germans, to join an expedition, with a pur- 
pose not very clearly explained, to the province 
of Souora. When they were about to embark 
in the British ship Challenge^ General Wool 
ordered that vessel seized. She was released. 



400 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, however, in a clay or two, and permitted to de- 
*Z^^' pai"* ; ^ut the general had Consul Del Valle 

1854. arrested on a charge of enlisting soldiers for a 
foreign power on United States territory. The 
trial that followed was tedious and imbittering. 
It l^ecame necessary, in the course of it, to have 
the French consul, Mr. Dillon, in court as a 
witness ; but that gentleman stood on his con- 
sular dignity, declined the invitation, and ig- 
nored the summons that followed. The mar- 
shal finally brought him into court, where 
Judge Hoffman allowed the justice of his 
claim for exemption. But Ddlon held that 
France had been insulted by his arrest, and 
so pulled down his consular flag. The trial 
of Del Valle proceeded, and he was found 
guilty. 

Dillon was next arrested, charged with aiding 
the Mexican consul in his unlawful enterprise. 
He pleaded, as Del Valle had done, that the 
Challenge expeditionists went, not as fillibusters, 
but to put down fillibusters, and especially the 
Count Raousset de Boulbon ; who, failing to 
find the Arizona silver mine he sought, and 
goaded by persecution, had turned to political 
schemings. The jury disagreed, and the prose- 
cution was abandoned. Further proceedings 
against Del Valle, too, who had not yet been 
sentenced, were suspended. In November of 



VIOLATION OF THE NEUTEALITY LAWS. 401 

1855, Mr. Dillon raised his flaer asrain as a chap. 

. XXVII 

French war-vessel entered the harbor, which 
was saluted with apologetic guns, and the con- 1855. 
sular trouble was happily ended. 

26 



102 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XXVIIL 

A FINANCIAL STORM. 

CHAP. A GREAT financial storm passed over the 
State early in 1855. The Constitution pro- 

1855. hibited Incorporations for banking purposes, 
and forbade the issue of any paper currency. 
In the early times men deposited their spare 
gold-dust with such merchants as had safes or 
vaults. As business increased, houses were es- 
tablished in all the principal towns with the 
special purpose of exchanging coin for the dust 
of the miners, of receiving deposits, furnishing 
exchange, and, in short, of doing a general bank- 
ing business, always excepting that they could 
utter no bank-bills. 

It happened that the winter of 1854-5 was 
very chary of its rains, and, in consequence, the 
mines could not be worked extensively. Hence, 
the miners, who were generally cash customers, 
wanted credit with the mountain merchants ; 
these wanted it of the jobbers; these of the 
consignees and importers ; and these of the 
Eastern shippers. Meanwhile the Eastern mer- 
chants were pouring goods into the already 



FAILURE OF PAGE, BACON & CO. 403 

overstocked market. At auction their con- chap. 
signments found a sale, because they were so _^^_, 
cheap, and the gold kept flowing Eastward to 1855. 
pay for them. Most gold-shipments were made ® ' 
through the banks, which were drained fear- 
fully low of their treasure. 

At this critical time, news arrived that the 
house of Page & Bacon, of St. Louis, had got 
into trouble through its advances to the Ohio 
and Mississippi Eailroad. At once began a run 
upon the leading bank in California (Page, 
Bacon & Co.'s), which was in close business re- 
lations with the St. Louis finn. The bank 
stood it for a few days, and then, on February 
22d, Washington's birthday, it suspended. A 
panic seized the town, and soon affected the 
whole State. The house of Adams & Co., 
which had grown from an express business 
into a large banking business, also suspended 
next day, and their books, notes, dust, coin, and 
so forth were turned over, at least so the pub- 
lic supposed, to Alfred A. Cohen, as receiver. 
Wells, Fargo & Co. folio w^ed, and Henry M. 
Naglee was appointed their receiver. They 
resumed soon after, and continue yet, with an 
express business added to their banking, whose 
ramifications may be traced throughout the 
States and in Europe. Dr. Wright's Savings 
Bank and some others in San Francisco closed. 
In the interior, besides the branch offices of the 



404 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, large city houses, many smaller banks sLut up, 
^^_^_,'and the crash among the merchants swiftly 
1855. followed. 

'^ • All the susjjending banks — there were a few, 
some of which are still in operation, that weath- 
ered the gale — insisted that it was solely a lack 
of coin that compelled tlieir closing, and that 
they had abundant assets if they only could be 
given a little time to make them available. 
Many of the leading merchants, to whom Page, 
Bacon & Co. were largely indebted, were so 
well satisfied that time alone was wanting in 
their case, that they guaranteed the time-certifi- 
cates of the house, and Page, Bacon & Co. soon 
started again ; but only to stumble deeper into 
the mire. The gentlemen who guaranteed their 
certificates were helped out of their liability by 
a decision of the Supreme Court, that a discrep- 
ancy of dates on some of the certificates and 
their bond was fatal to the validity of the 
former. 

Nine years afterwards, when it was represent- 
ed that all that either the San Francisco or the 
St. Louis house had relied on to make good their 
promises was gone, William T. Coleman, a 
brother-in-law of Mr. Bacon, stated to a meeting 
of the creditors of the California house, that the 
remaining total indebtedness in this State was 
about half a million of dollars, aside from in- 
terest, which was as much more. He proposed 



FAILUEE OF ADAMS & CO. 405 

to pay ten per cent, on the principal, if creditors chap. 
would accept it, for the sake of releasing Bacon. _^_' 
But the creditors thought five per cent, on 1855. 
paper that they had carried nine years was 
scarcely worth accepting, and the meeting, dis- 
solved, agreeing to nothing. 

For Adams <fe Co. there was a stormy future. 
The bitterness of the indignation of their credi- 
tors is scarcely yet out of their mouths. They 
began in San Francisco in 1850, soon came into 
an immense business, were universally confided 
in, and were never suspected of unsoundness 
until after their failure. The public very soon 
after that event began to fancy that there was 
some collusion in the appointment of Cohen as 
receiver, who deposited at least a portion of 
the funds turned over to him with Palmer, 
Cook & Co., his sureties, a notable firm of bank- 
ers, which had gone through the panic of Feb- 
ruary without harm. The creditors, thoroughly 
aroused, at last obtained the appointment of H. 
M. Naglee as receiver, in place of Cohen ; but, 
though they had the shrewd counsel of Trenor 
W. Park, it was not an easy task to make Cohen 
surrender the assets he had received to his suc- 
cessor. So much of them as Palmer, Cook & 
Co. held on deposit that firm refused to give 
up. Suit followed suit, and Mr. Jones, one of 
the partners, was imprisoned for contempt of 
the Fourth District (Judge Hager's) Court. E,e- 



406 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, leiiting at last, Jones handed over so mucli as he 

■ had, and was released. 
1855- Cohen was of more stubborn stuff, or else the 
^^^^' ignorance that he professed was genuine. He 
too was imprisoned for contempt, and one ques- 
tion that was asked — what became of a certain 
amount of money that was removed on a par- 
ticular night, from Alsop & Company's vaults 
— is not to this day ansv/ered. The books 
would tell, thought the creditors ; but on search 
they were missing. One day a bag of books 
was found floating in the bay, near North 
Beach, by some Irishmen, who, on being as- 
sured that they were the missing accounts of 
Adams & Co., canght the infection of the times, 
and asked thirty thousand dollars for them. 
The officers of the law searched the vicinity of 
the finders' homes, and at last discovered the 
])ooks, wet and water-soiled, between two mat- 
tresses. But the important leaves detailing 
the expenditures and receipts of February 21st 
and 22d were wanting. 

Cohen, still persisting that the books were 
never in his possession, and that he had told all 
he knew, was allowed to lie in jail. He was 
prosecuted for embezzlement, and the jury 
found that two hundred and sixty-nine tljou- 
sand dollars had gone into his hands, for which 
no account was made. But suddenly, when 
Judge Hager had gone East, and ^vhile Park 



COHEISr's CONTEMPT OF COURT. 407 

was away, application was made to tlie Supreme chap. 
Court for liis release, and it was granted. 

It was a mystery why the prosecution of 1855- 
Cohen should so suddenly cease, and the inti- "* '' 
mate relations soon after found to exist between 
Park and Cohen's sureties, Palmer, Cook & Co., 
and the connection of both with Fremont and 
the Mariposa mine during the Presidential cam- 
paign of 1856, caused some scandal, l)ut it re- 
mained a mystery until the subject was forgot- 
ten. 

Meanwhile, Isaiah C. Woods, the resident 1855. 
partner and manager of the house of Adams & "°' ' 
Co., slipped off for Australia, and although in 
a card he said he was going for the benefit of 
creditors, he has not yet returned. The Su- 
preme Court decided his proceedings in insol- 
vency void, and further raised the hopes of cred- 
itors by determining that those who had taken 
out attachments must fare precisely as the rest ; 
but nothing was saved from the wreck. 

Among the bankers ruined by this financial 
storm was " James King, of William," Born in 
Virginia, he went to California in 1848. 
When he failed he reserved nothing of the 
handsome fortune he had made as a banker, 
and refused to avail himself of the insolvency 
act, for which scores eagerly applied. He be- 
came a clerk with Adams & Co., but soon per- 
ceived practices re^^ugnant to his natui'e. Be- 



408 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, fore lie had decided that it was right to leave, 
^■^^^^ ■ seeing that many of his old customers had fol- 

1855. lowed him to that house, came its failure. 

Oct. 8. ;f;[ow, entirely out of employment, and believ- 
ing that an independent press might shed light 
enough on the wretched state of society to com- 
pel its reform, he associated himself with C. O. 
Gerberding, and began (October 8th, 1855) the 
publication of the daily Evening Bulletin. It 
was a small sheet, and its editor's inexperience 
in his new profession was marked in the first 
as in many a succeeding number. But it was 
from the start a power and a terror to evil- 
doers. Intimately acquainted with the villany 
of men in a rank that too often is not amenable 
to law or even to public sentiment, he began 
at once to apply the lash to their shoulders. 
He had not much to say about sin, but sinners 
he flayed alive. Into Palmer, Cook &, Co., 
Broderick, Cohen, into city officials derelict in 
duty, into courts that shielded crime with law, 
into lawyers almost as a class, but specifically 
enough, into ballot-box stuffers and ward colo- 
nists, into politicians of all schools, into any- 
body that seemed to him to be injuring society, 
sapping its virtue, or defending its criminals, 
he thrust his weapon with all his might. 

He was exceedingly careful of his focts. The 
thouirht of libel suits never disturbed him. He 
gave early notice that he would not fight a 



JAMES Kiwa 409 

duel, and that for assassins he went prepared, chap. 
The people rallied to his support as if Justice __^" 
had come down to edit a paper. He told secrets i855- 
that made rich villains wince and detectives ^^^^' 
wonder how he learned them. The Richmond 
of his heaviest siege was " Palmer, Cook & 00.'' 
He claimed that they were doing a general 
banking business, and so were anjenable to 
honest criticism. He charged them witli hei- 
nous political crimes ; he alleged that they fur- 
nished the funds for Broderick to make his 
successful iight against Gwiu, and compelled 
Gwin (whose defeat was no cause for regret) 
to confess that Palmer kept him out of the 
Senate ; they were kings of the lobby. He 
said they compelled office-holders to engage 
them as sureties that they might finger the 
funds. He showed that while they were on 
Cohen's bonds for a million dollars, they were 
on the bonds of State, city, and county officers 
for half a million, and of other persons and offi- 
cers enough more to make the total of their 
obligations of that sort over two million dol- 
lars. He charged them with financial unsound- 
ness and political corruption, with debauching 
public officers, controlling elections, and buying 
judicial decisions. 

About vulgar criminals he made less noise, 
but when Cora, the murderer of Marshal Rich- 
ardson, was supposed to be rather loosely held 



410 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

ciiAr. by tlie sheriff, lie exclaimed in his paper, ''If 
,__^__,"Mr. Sheriff Scannell does not remove Billy 
1806. Mulligan from his present post as keeper of the 
county jail, and Mulligan lets Cora escape — 
hang Billy Mulligan ; and if necessary to get 
rid of the sheriff, hang him — hang the sheriff"!" 
The price that James King paid for this 
independence, these bold, unusual utterances, 
which the disjointed times demanded, will ap- 
pear in a future chapter. 

The finances of the State were coming into a 
very bad way. Prohibited by the Constitution 
from creating a debt of over three hundred 
thousand dollars, except under circumstances 
that did not then exist, a debt of ten times that 
amount had ]:)een contracted. At the close of 
the year 1856, the aggregated city, county, and 
State debts amounted to twelve million one 
hundred and sixty-three thousand dollars. The 
State owned the tide lands, but early gave away 
to the several cities most of those portions of 
them from whicli a revenue might have been 
raised. It owned the swamp land, donated to 
it by Congress for purposes of reclamation, on 
which it raised sometliing by sales. It owned 
several millions of acres more, given it by Con- 
gress, and by the terms of the gift or by local 
legislation devoted to school purposes. Besides 
these resources, it had great exj)ectations that 
Congress would refund the customs collected at 



STATE FINANCES. 411 

San Francisco while California was neither a chap. 
Territory nor a State ; but they were never real- 
ized. To raise money, then, for current ex- i855. 
penses, the chief reliable resort was taxation. 
Real and personal property were taxed at a 
high rate; poll-taxes were levied, and all pro- 
prietors of theatres and shows, all bankers, bro- 
kers, foreign miners, merchants, tavern-keepers, 
and the officers of incorporations for gain were 
required to take out licenses; but the tax-col- 
lectors were not quick enough to catch the 
shifting population, and high rates brought 
small returns. 

The Legislature began to be eyed suspicious- 
ly, especially from San Francisco. It w^as al- 
ways plotting some scheme that disturbed the 
temper of citizens. Session after session it 
attempted to extend the city's water-front in a 
manner that would enrich a few at the expense 
of the many and of commerce. In 1853, a bill 1853. 
to extend the front at some points six hundred 
feet into the bay, passed the Assembly The 
five San Francisco members who opposed it — 
John Sime was of the number — resigned their 
seats, and were re-elected on that issue by an 
immense majority. In the Senate the bill was 
defeated only by the casting vote of Lieutenant- 
Governor Purdy. Governor Bigier advised in 1854. 
his next message another eiforfc at extension, 
pleading the necessities of the State, which sadly 



412 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA 

CHAP, wanted tlie revenue that the water-lots would 
■fetch, but happily, though backed by a horde 

1854. of hungry speculators, the city was saved the 
infliction. 

The lobby, which early became a formidable 
power at the capital, devised schemes for ob- 
taining valuable franchises for toll-roads lead- 
ing out of the cities and over the mountains, 
and for bridges ; but Governor Bigler was 
sound on that question ; he vetoed most that 
came before him, and the franchise-hunters tar- 
. ried till a later day for their harvest. 

The Federal courts commanded respect at all 
times ; but the Supreme Court of the State had 
only a tolerable reputation. The personal char- 
acter of some of the judges was bad. If there 
was ability, spotless integrity did not always 
accompany it ; if honesty, it was not always 
well mixed with wisdom. 



roLiTics ' 413 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

POLITICS. 

Politics had gi\)wn to be a profession, and cha.p 
its professors were not eminently the salt of the xxix. 
earth. The honest, order-loving people were iq^(^_ 
blamable for leaving their local and State policy 1856. 
to be controlled so entirely by persons too idle 
to labor, and too fond of office and the spoils 
of party to be trusted safely. They sufi'ered 
for their neglect, in pocket, in recantation, in the 
peace of community. 

A Democratic Administration had acquired 
the country ; but a Whig Administration first 
enjoyed it. Certainly it might have managed 
its inheritance better. It succeeded early in 
making every department of Federal rule of- 
fensive to the people. It persisted in collecting 
customs on the basis of the war levy long after 
peace had been restored. It left the country 
without the existence of either a Territorial or 
State Government. It was not slow to furnish 
postal facilities ; but the rates of postage were 
maintained at an intolerably high figure. Presi- 
dent Fillmore advised that the mines be held 



414 THi: HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, as United States j)i'operty, and tliat tliey he 

y_^^ made to contribute to the Federal revenue, than 
which nothins; could be devised to set the 
miners more stubbornly against the party in 
power. 

For these and other reasons, the Whigs, not- 
withstanding all their patronage, gained nothing 
for their party in California, and never carried 
the State. The first Governor elected by the 

1849. people (1840) was Peter H. Burnett, a Demo- 
crat. The total number of votes cast was but 
fourteen thousand one hundred and seventeen. 
John A. Sutter received two thousand two 
hundred and one ; John W. Geary, fourteen 
hundred and seventy -five ; W. M. Stewart, 
six hundred and nineteen ; W. S. Sherwood, 
three thousand one hundred and eighty-eight • 
and Burnett, six thousand six hundred and 
thirty-four. The first Legislature was of like 
politics as the Governor. After a single year's 
service, Burnett resigned, and John McDougall, 
the Democratic Lieutenant-Governor, succeeded 
to his chair — -David C. Broderick being elected 
President of the Senate to fill the vacancy thus 
created. 

Lithe fall of 1851 the people elected again. 

1851. John Bigler (a Pennsylvania Democrat, whose 
familiarity with jiarliamentary rules made him 
Speaker ^;ro tem. of the Assembly in 1850, and 
permanent Speaker in 1851) received twenty- 



EARLY ELECTIONS. 415 

tliree thousand seven hundred and seventy-four gila.p. 

• • XXIX 

votes for Governor, while Reading, Lis Whig J^^^J^ 
opponent, got twenty-two thousand seven hun- i85i. 
dred and thirty-three. 

In this contest Bigler had the aid of the 
squatters, who were becoming a power in the 
State. He was democratic in his mannei's — the 
"hale fellow" of all he met. His opponent 
was a gentleman of more genteel bearing, and 
owned much land. Bigler was kind-hearted, 
unambitious, landless, and always mindful of 
bis friends. He urged economy in his messages ; 
but found it hard to prevent an office being 
made for a friend. It was his pet project to 
unite the Southern and Western men of his 
party, and let the Free-soilers shift for them- 
selves ; but it is not in that direction that party 
cleavao-e runs. The Southerners scorned the 
alliance. They were '' high-toned," and looked 
dov/n upon a Missourian as little better than a 
man from Massachusetts. The Governor's proj- 
ect would not work. He carried water on both 
shoulders, and spilt very little on either side. 
Though a man of positive opinions, and bold 
in the expression of them, he managed to make 
his party grow, as was shown at the Presiden- 
tial election in 1852, when Franklin Pierce re- 1852, 
ceived forty thousand four hundred and twenty- 
nine votes in California, and General Scott thii-- 
ty-five thousand seven hundred and sixty. In- 



416 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, deed, he was a devoted partisan. In judging 
of his Administration it must be remembered 

1852. that he fell on evil times, when men gambled 
a great deal, had not their families with them, 
were rough, money-making, and extravagant. 
At his first nomination, Broderick was against 
him ; but after Weller went to the United 
States Senate, the stone-cutter's son took a 
different view of things, and brought his pow- 
erful aid to secure him the nomination for a 
second term. 

Successful in convention, Bigler was suc- 

1853. cessful again before the people, who (in 1853) 
re-elected him Governor by a majority of four- 
teen hundred and sixty-seven over Waldo, his 
Whig opponent. 

Plitherto the Democracy, quari'el as much 
as they might in caucus and convention, had 
managed to present an unbroken front on 
election-day. Now the feud was too hot for 
concealment. The party was split into fac- 
tions — the Northern (Tammany) wing under 
the lead of Broderick, and the Southern, or 
Chivalry, under Dr. Gwin. Broderick strug- 
1854 gled in the Legislature of 1854 to bring on 
the election of United States Senator at once ; 
hence his party was known at the time as 
" Election ists." Gwin, with equal vigor, girded 
himself to stave off the election, and his wing- 
were " Anti-Electionists." Broderick was chair- 



GWIN AND BRODEEICK. 417 

man of tlie State Central Committee. A State chap. 

XXIX 

convention was called to meet at Sacramento, 
in the First Baptist Churcli, on the 18th of 1854. 
July, 1854. The building was kept closed 
until a few minutes of the time ; the doors were 
then unlocked, and a great crowd dashed into 
the little l)uilding. Broderick called the ex- 
cited assembly to order, and asked nominations 
for a temporary president. A Gwin man 
named ex-Governor McDougall, and a Brod- 
erick man almost simultaneously named Ed- 
ward McGowan. Broderick recognized the 
last-named, and put the vote. A storm of 
ayes and noes was thundered out, and McDou- 
gall and McGowan both started for the chair. 
They reached it together, and both proceeded 
with business, professing to ignore each other's 
presence. • There were double sets of officers, 
double speeches, double reports. At one time a 
collision occurred, and a pistol was discharged, 
probably by accident. The trustees of the 
church gave notice that they could not occupy 
the building any longer — it was not calculated 
to bear the strain of a double convention. At 
last a double motion to adjourn was carried, 
and the two chairmen left the church arm-in- 
arm. 

Next day the factions met in separate halls. 
The Chivalry nominated J. W. Denver and 
Philip Herbert for Congress. The Tammany 

27 



418 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 

CHAP, wing nominated General James McDougall and 

^_ ■ James Churchman of Nevada. 

1854. A ^veek later the Whigs had a State conven- 
tion at Sacramento, which was marked with all 
the harmony j^eculiar to hopeless minorities. 
J. Neely Johnson presided. Resolutions were 
adopted, invoking the people to help reduce 
taxes, unshackle commerce, remove restrictions 
on trade, restore the purity of the ballot-box, 
and make secure life, liberty, and property. 
For Congressmen, they nominated Calhoun 
Benham and G. W. Bowie. 

At the election the Gwin Congressmen won, 
getting some thirty-seven thousand five hundred 
votes ; the Broderick candidates had little over 
ten thousand ; while the Whigs had thirty-five 
thousand. 

It is curious to note here the future of some 
of these worthies. McGowan, Broderick's chair- 
man, at the outbreak of the great rebellion, pre- 
sented himself in Washington, claiming to rep- 
resent Arizona, and threatening to take that 
Territory out of the Union if Southern claims 
were not respected. Herbert, while in Congress, 
murdered an Irish waiter at Willard's Hotel, and 
fell into disgrace, even with his party. Denver 
became a Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and 
fouirht for the Union, until he was shelved 
quietly. Calhoun Benham became Buchanan's 
District Attorney for California, and prophesied 



THE GOVEENORSHIP. 419 

that grass would grow in the streets of New chap. 
York if Lincoln should be elected. After the ,_^^_ 
war broke out he was arrested by General Sum- i855. 
ner, in company with Dr. Gwin, in Panama 
harbor, and for a brief time occupied an apart- 
ment in Fort Lafayette. 

In 1855, Bigler was renominated for a third 
term as Governor. Some of G win's friends 
urged Milton S. Latham, but they were a minor- 
ity in convention. Bigler obtained forty-six 
thousand two hundred and twenty votes, the 
full strength of his part}^, but he failed of re- 
election. The Whigs merged into the new 
Know Nothing party, which gave fifty-one thou- 
sand one hundred and fifty-seven votes to J. 
Neely Johnson, and made him Governor. The 
politicians of the day said that Bigler, in de- 
spair of carrying any longer the friendship of 
Estill, who had the obnoxious State Prison con- 
tract, threw him off, and Estill, changing over 
to the Know Nothings, with a party strong- 
enough to turn the balance of power, revenged 
himself on his old friend. But the governor- 
ship was never deemed the highest political prize 
in California. Far above it shone the United 
States senatorship, and the attainment of that 
from an early date taxed heavily the energies 
of faction and the purse of the aspirant. At 
the first session of the Legislature (held at 
San Jose, December, 1849) parties were not or- 



420 THE HISTOEY OP CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, e^anized, and the senatorial election was soon 

XXIX. 

wv— ' over. 

1849. The nominees for Senator were John C. Fre- 
mont, William M. Gwiu, Captain H. W. Hal- 
leck (since General-in-Chief,) T. Butler King, 
Thomas J. Henley, Robert Semple, CoTonel 
Jonathan D. Stevenson (but Edmund Ran- 
dolph hastened to withdraw the colonel), and 
Colonel (now General) J. W. Geary. On the 
first ballot Fremont had twenty-nine (which 
elected him), Gwin twenty-two, Halleck four- 
teen. King ten, Henley nine, Geary five, Sem- 
ple three. On the third ballot Gwin had 
two majority. So Fremont and Gwin were 
California's first Senators. Halleck's highest 
vote was ei2:hteen on the third ballot. Fre- 
mont drew the short term, and his seat became 
vacant on the 3d of March, 1851. 

The Legislature desperately essayed, early in 

1851. 1851, to elect a successor to Fremont, but all in 
vain. After sundry efforts to appoint a day 
for a joint convention, the 17th of February 
was agreed on. When twelve o'clock arrived 
the Assembly was still in session, engaged in a 
call of the House, and the Senate took a recess 
of ten minutes, to give the officers time to pre- 
pare seats for the other branch in the Senate 
chamber, on the first floor; for, seeing how 
great the crowd was, it was deemed imprudent 
to meet in the Assembly chamber, on the second 



THE UNITED STATES SEISTATOKSHIP. 421 

floor. When order was called in the Senate chap. 

XXIX 

again, Mr. Broderick stated that several mem- . 'J 

bers of the Assembly were absent from their issi. 
seats in the Assembly, and could not be found. 
He said, moreover, that there was a rumor on 
the street that one member had been drugged 
the night before, to prevent his voting for a 
Senator. He moved to postpone the joint con. 
vention, and, though while the vote was being 
taken the Assembly was at the door, the vote was 
carried — ayes nine, Qwes six ; and the astounded 
Assembly was in a quandary, with a joint con- 
vention on its hands, and no Senate to help ad- 
journ it. However, the joint convention met 
soon after, and on the first ballot forty-nine 
votes were cast. Twenty-five were necessary to 
a choice, and no one had near that number. 
Fremont had eight ; Heydenfeldt, whose broth- 
er was a Whig member of the State Senate, 
had sixteen. King had .fifteen, G-eary four, 
Weller four, Collier two. Seven days were spent 
in ineffectual efforts to elect. On the sixty-sixth 
ballot Fremont had eleven. King nineteen, 
Heydenfeldt fifteen, Geary one, and George B. 
Tingley two. On the 27th of February the 
one hundred and forty-first ballot was taken, 
when Fremont had fourteen, King eighteen, 
Heydenfeldt fifteen, Bennet one. Heydenfeldt 
was now withdrawn, and John B. Weller nom- 
inated. Next day the one hundred and forty- 



422 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, second ballot was taken, resultins: as follows : 

XXIX • • • 

^.^ Fremont nine, King twenty, Weller eighteen, 
1852. Geary one. Then, satisfied they could never 
agree, the joint convention adjourned to Janu- 
ary 1st, 1852. The letter-writers of that day 
represent San Jose as black with the lobby, 
and the candidates giving suppers to their 
friends with the most profuse hospitality. 

The Legislature of 1852 met at Vallejo, but 
finding no accommodations for remaining, re- 
moved to Sacramento. By this time the Demo- 
cratic party, which was largely in the majority, 
had perfectly organized. The seventy-two Dem- 
ocrats went into caucus, and on the first bal- 
lot Weller had twenty-one votes, Broderick six- 
teen. The joint convention, however, did not 
wait on caucus. At its first ballotinor Weller 
had twenty-three, G. B. Tingley sixteen, Brod- 
erick fifteen, William Smith nine, Alexander 
Anderson nine, W. McLvaue seven, and ten scat- 
tering. Caucus tried it again, and on the fifth 
ballot Weller had two majority over Broderick. 
Next day, in joint convention, John B. Weller 
had seventy-one, P. B. Beading seventeen. So 
Weller was elected the successor of John C. 
Fremont in the United States Senate. 

In 1853 there was rest from Senator-making; 

1854. but in 1854 the campaign reopened. Gwin's 

term of ofiice was not to expire until March 4th, 

1855. But Broderick doubted if he would 



THE UjStited states senatoeship. 423 

soon again get so favorable a Legislature, and chap. 
determined to brino: on an election. The Whis-s " 
having nothing to lose by delay, united with the 1854. 
Gwin faction in the employment of every means 
to postpone the election. At one time Broder- 
ick needed but a single vote more to carry his 
point and secure his election. The Legislature 
adjourned mid-session from Benicia to Sacra- 
mento — it was said to win a Sacramento vote — 
but the ruse was unsuccessful, and the election 
could not be ordered. Hence the bitterness 
and obstinacy with which the factions struggled 
for the advantasre in the State Convention of 
the followincr fall. 

In 1855, Gwin started with a majority in the 1855. 
Legislature, but not enough to control the elec- 
tion. They balloted fifty times, and from the 
17th of January to the 16th of February. On 
the first ballot Gwin had forty-two, Broderick 
twelve, Philip L. Edwards thirty -six, Joseph. 
W. McCorkle fourteen, James A. McDougall 
two, Frederick Billings one, Solomon Heyden- 
feldt one, Frank Soule one, and R. T. Sprague 
one. On the fiftieth ballot, Broderick had 
twelve, Gwin forty -one, Edwards thirty -six, 
Koman fifteen ; and then the joint convention 
adjourned sine die, and from the 4th of March 
of that year there was a vacancy in the State's 
senatorial representation at Washington. To 
prevent accidents in case the next Legislatui'e 



424 THE inSTORT OF CALIFOEISTA. 

CHAP, should be of some other than the Democratic 

XXIX 

._^_; party, a law was enacted, requiring all regular 

1855. elections for United States Senator to be held 
after the 1st of January next preceding the 
commencement of the senatorial term — a pre- 
caution necessary to keep Weller's seat open 
for a Democrat. 

Neely. Johnson was inaugurated Governor in 

1856. January, 1856. He was supported by a Know 
Nothing Legislature, which came within one 
vote of electing Henry S. Foote, formerly of 
Mississippi (and since then a member of the 
Confederate Senate in Richmond), but at that 
time a resident of California. Wilson Flint, 
one of the senators, though a Know Nothing, 
sturdily refused to vote for Foote, believing 
that he was a pro-slavery man and a carpet- 
bag politician, whose sole errand to the State 
was to gain this prize. Great was the wrath 
of the party, but Flint was stubborn, and with- 
out his vote no progress could be made. His 
life was threatened, but his friends guarded 
well his ways, and no harm came to him. 
Foote's party competitor was Henry A. Crabb, 
who afterwards withdrew in favor of W. J. 
Ferguson, of Sacramento. The party lacking 
discipline, and its members distrusting its lease 
of power, each faction felt that compromises 
were useless, and present success all that was 
worth struo-ofliuo; for. The Democrats did not 



GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS. 425 

doubt that next year tliey would have the Legis- char 
lature again, and as then Weller's term as well ,_^ 
as Gwin's would be out, there would be a place 1856. 
for each faction. So they harmonized in view 
of the spoils, and with a very little Know Noth- 
ing aid, got a resolution through the Senate, 
declaring it inexpedient and contrary to the 
wishes of the people to fill the existing vacancy, 
and postponed all action on the subject to 
January 1st, 1857. The two Houses did not 
go into joint convention. 

The Presidential election came on that fall. 
James Buchanan obtained the electoral vote of 
the State. His popular vote was fifty-three 
thousand three hundred and sixty-five. Mil- 
lard Filkuore, the American candidate, received 
thirty-six thousand one hundred and sixty-five 
votes ; and Fremont, who now claimed a resi- 
dence in New York, from the State which de- 
lighted almost unanimously to make him her 
first Senator, received twenty thousand six hun 
dred and ninety-three. 

The candidates for Congress that year were 
Joseph McKibben and Charles Scott (Demo- 
crats), who were elected ; Whitman and Dibble, 
Americans, and Ira P. Eankin and Mr. Turner, 
Republicans, who ran far enough ahead of Fre- 
mont to mark the unpopularity of the young 
Pathfinder in the region of which he was the 
reputed conqueror. 



426 THE HISTOBT OF CALLFOMSriA. 

CHAP. San Francisco had come by deo^rees to stand 

XXIX • • . . 

^_^_J at variance with the State on politics. In 1851, 
1851- it gave a majority to the Whig nominee for 
■ Governor. In 1853, Bigler had but five major- 
ity there over Waldo. In 1854, it gave a plu- 
rality for the Whig Congressmen, and to the 
Broderick wing from three hundred and fifty 
to four hundred votes more than to the Gwin 
faction. In 1855, the united Democracy got 
nearly two thousand majority over the Know 
Nothings. In 1856, it gave Buchanan a plu- 
rality, but to Fremont more than three to one 
for Fillmore. San Francisco, generally, tended 
to the side of the minority. 

In Sacramento the Whigs were in the ma- 
jority in 1852, 1853, and 1854; the Know 
Nothings in 1855 ; and the Democrats in 1856. 
As between Broderick and Gwin in 1854, it 
inclined to the former. The strongholds of the 
Chivahy were in the mining region. 

But the real "ruling classes " do not come to 
light in these statistics. The dregs of society 
— swindlers, thieves, and gamblers — dictated 
to the party dictators, and ruled the State 
with a tyranny that conventions dare not med- 
dle with. The party in power had to bear 
the odium of the wretched condition of affairs ; 
probably it would have l^een all the same 
whether Whigs or Democrats, Tammanyites or 
" Chivs " occupied the public 2:)laces. The 



THE REAL EULEES. 427 

better classes had despised politics, and tlie chap. 
worst classes picked up the reins and were 
driving fast to ruin. Good men, who were ele- 
vated to power by parties that they could not 
think of controlling, were ashamed, disgusted, 
mortified by the power that used them. The 
judiciary fell into disrepute. The course of 
regular justice was obstructed. Criminals en- 
joyed an alarming immunity from punishment. 
Violence ruled in city and country. Then 
Judge Lynch crowded the slow judge (whom 
the people elected) off the bench. The legal 
executioner could not learn his business for 
lack of practice ; yet in many a quiet nook 
among the mountains, the thief or murderer, or 
the party pronounced to be such after a hurried 
trial, was hung by the neck to the limb of a 
tree — the trial beginning in the morning, the 
hanging over before noon ! 

Here are some examples which occurred long 
after the organization of the courts was com- 
pleted for every settled section of the State : 
Two Mexican horse-thieves were lynched near 
Martinez in April, 1853. A bar-keeper was, in 
the same month, hung on the very day that he 
shot a citizen of Whiskey Creek, near Shasta. 
In July, a Mexican was hung at Jackson for 
horse-stealing. At Volcano, in December, 1854, 
one Macy stabbed an old man. In less than 
half an hour the assassin was swinging lifeless 



428 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. — ^Laving been executed by the mob. The same 
,__^^ month, one Johnson stabbed a man named 
1853- Montgomery, at Iowa Hill ; he attempted to 
■^^^^" escape, but was captured, and was hung the 
next day. As the wounded man gave signs of 
recovery afterwards, a revulsion in the public 
sentiment took place, and a suspicion got out 
that perhaps the avengers had been in too 
much haste. Three men, convicted of murder, 
lay in jail together at Los Angeles, under sen- 
tence of death. An order w^ent down from the 
Supreme Court granting a stay of proceedings 
in the cases of Brown and Lee, leaving Alvitre 
to his fate. The people insisted that Brown 
should suffer death the same day with Alvitre. 
The mayor of the city made a speech, ui'ging 
the justice of that course. On the 12th of Jan- 
uary, 1855, Alvitre was executed according to 
law. The mayor resigned his office and joined 
the mob, which demanded Brown from the sher- 
iff. They took Brown forcibly out of the jail 
and hung him, in spite of the Supreme Court, by 
the side of his fellow in crime. On the 18th 
of the same month, Mr. Heslep, the acting treas- 
urer of Tuolumne County, was murdered. The 
supposed murderer was caught and lynched on 
the 19 th. Three cattle-thieves were captured 
one Sunday of February, 1855, in Contra Costa 
County, and hung by the mob on the Monday 
following. The same month, some unknown 



LYNCH LAW. 429 

persons took a horse-thief out of the Oakland chap. 

• • • • • XXIX 

jail, carried him to Clinton Bridge, and hung _^ 
him to the bough of a tree. In August, 1855, i855. 
six Americans were murdered by a gang of 
Mexicans, not far from Jackson, in Amador 
County. The people turned out and caught 
thirty-six of the Mexicans. It was proposed to 
hang them together. But that was thought 
too irresponsible a method. So a jury was se- 
lected, several of the captives tried, and three 
of them hung on the same tree together. 

Robbers infested the highways, of the South- 
ern counties especially. There is a long chap- 
ter of violence that may remain unwritten, 
where the criminals were not caught. Some- 
times these cases created an excitement far 
beyond the immediate vicinity where the crime 
was committed. In November, 1855, Isaac B. 
Wall, ex-Speaker of Assembly, and Collector of 
Monterey, and T. S. Williamson, a county offi- 
cer of Monterey, when on the road between 
their home and San Luis Obispo, were assas- 
sinated. The same month, William H. Richard- 
son, United States Marshal, was shot fatally by 
Charles Cora on Clay Street in San Francisco, 
a few doors below Montgomery Street, by day- 
light. Cora was arrested. 

There was no assuraiice that conviction would 
follow arrest, no matter how many witnesses. 
The county jails were seldom very secure at the 



430 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFOElSnA. 

best, even if there had not been conniving 
sheriffs. The State's Prison at San Quentin 

1854. was a sieve. In December, 1854, thirty con- 
victs escaped from it on the same day. 

The sudden rise of the Know Nothing or 

1855. American party into power was not owing so 
much to any outburst of exclusively American 
feeling as to the determination to adopt any 
thing new, with the hope that an unhackneyed 
party and fresh men might dam the flood that 
had swept away the social reputation of the 
State, and threatened to wreck its financial 
character. That party's equally sudden col- 
lapse was due to the discovery that unprinci- 
pled persons had got control of that organiza- 
tion too, and were handling it as all others had 
been. 

Things came at last to a pitch beyond en- 
durance. There were some good men in office, 
but so hampered and hedged that they might 
as well have been out ; there were some good 
judges on the bench, but generally they were 
powerless to punish crime or protect innocence 
a2:ainst the tide of false swearino- that set in the 
hour it was wanted to shield criminals or con- 
vict the guiltless. There were bad men in 
office, too, who had things very much their own 
way: coi-rupt judges, who fingered bribes, as 
the i)ublic believed ; sheriffs, and constables, 
and jailers, to whom detected criminals ran for 



DESPERATE SOCIAL CONDITIO]^". 431 

refuge. San Franciscans, after dark, instinctively chap. 
avoided a crowd ; and if they had occasion to ^-^^j 
go into the sandy or chaparal-covered suburbs 1855, 
after nightfall, they felt that they neglected 
their duty to themselves and their families un- 
less they took a revolver. 

Ballot-box stuffing v^as as regular as the ar- 
rival of election-day. Voters felt it a farce to 
spend their time at the polls, when rowdies, 
gamblers, state-j)rison convicts, and " Sydney 
ducks " could, in ten minutes after the polls 
were closed, make any majority for their side 
that was wanted. It was a condition of affairs 
that American citizens could not long endure. 



432 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEIS^A. 



MayU. 



CHAPTEK XXX. 

THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE OF 1856. 

The explosion occurred in 1856, at San Fran- 
cisco, but the whole State felt the shock. A 
1856. correspondent of the Bulletin, signing himself 
" A Purifier," liad spoken of one Bagley, wko 
had been indicted for attempting the life of 
James P. Casey, as an objectionable 'appointee 
to tlie Custom-House, which Collector Latham 
was busily reformiu'T;. James King, in an edi- 
torial, on tke 14th o^ May, used the following 
language : — 

" It does not matter how bad a man Casey 
bad been, nor how much benefit it might be to 
the public to have him out of the way ; we can- 
not accord to any one citizen the right to kill 
him, or even beat Mm, without justifiable, per- 
sonal provocation. The fact that Casey has 
been the inmate of Sius; Sino- Prison is no of- 
fence against the laws of this State ; nor is the 
fact of his having stufied himself through the 
ballot-box as elected to the Board of Super- 
visors from a district where it is said he was 
not even a candidate, any justification for Mr. 



JAMES KIITG AND CASEY. 433 

Bagley to shoot Casey, however richly the lat- chap. 
ter may deserve to have his neck stretched for 
such a fraud on the people." 185g. 

The Bulletin was issued about three o'clock ^^' 
in the afternoon. At four o'clock, Supervisor 
Casey, the subject of the above " disparaging 
allusion," entered the editorial room of the Bul- 
letin^ which was on the second story of a build- 
ing on Merchant Street, near Montgomery. 
King was seated at his desk. Casey asked him 
what he meant by the article in the Bulletin 
just issued; King asked him to what article he 
referred. 

" To that," said Casey, " which says that I 
was formerly an inmate of Sing Sing Prison." 

" Is not that true ?" asked Kinsf. 

"That is not the question," replied Casey ; " I 
don't wish my past acts raised up ; on that I am 
sensitive." 

" Are you done ?" asked King. " There's the 
door — go ! Never show your face here again." 

Casey moved off immediately. Passing out 
of the door, he said, " I'll say in my paper what 
I j)lease ;" — he was editor of a weekly sheet — 
the Sunday Times. 

"You have a perfect right to do as you 
please," answered King ; " I'll never notice your 
paper." Casey, without another word, departed. 

King left his office soon after five o'clock, as 
usual, to go to his dinner. He passed up Mer- 

28 



434 THE HISTORY OF CALTFORTTTA. 

CHAP, chant Street, up Montgomery to Washington 
'^^^' Street, and began to cross it to the west side of 
1856. Montgomery. Casey, who was on the west 
^^^' side of Montgomery Street, waiting, threw off 
his cloak, and presenting a revolver when they 
were a few feet apart, and saying, " Come on," 
or something to that effect, fired. The shot 
entered King's left breast and passed out ijn- 
der the shoulder-blade. King staggered into 
the Pacific Express Company's ofiice, on the 
northwest corner of Washington and Montgom- 
ery Streets. The wound bled freely. He was 
got to bed, and slept somewhat during the 
night. 

Casey, so soon as he had fired, was hurried 
off to the station-house by his friends, and 
thence to the jail on Broadway, as to a place of 
refuge. 

Fearful of an attack upon the jail^ the mili- 
tary were ordered out, and they promptly re- 
sponded. A hundred of them, more or less, 
took their position on the roof, ready to fire on 
the crowd in case of emergency. At half-past 
six p. M., Mayor Van Ness attempted from the 
front of the jail to address the crowd. He ad- 
vised them to disperse quietly — " the prisoner 
was safe " — " it was best to let the law take its 
course and justice be done." He was inter- 
rupted with cries of "Where is the law in 
Cora's case V — " There is too much law and too 



JAMES KING SHOT BY CASEY. 435 

little lustice in California." — " Down with sucli chap. 
justice !" The Mayor, seeing his efforts useless, _^^ 
retired. The crowd tarried about the jail till a issa, 
late hour, and then dispersed. 

But all night there was a great assemblage 
before the Pacific Express Company's office, 
waiting to learn the fate of Mr. King. Ropes 
were placed across the street to prevent the 
friendly crowd from entering the building and 
disturbing the wounded man's repose. 

The old Vigilance Committee of 1851 met 
during the evening, but deferred definite actioa 
until the next day. 

That next day was one of profound excite- Mayi5. 
ment in San Francisco. The Heixild spoke of 
the attempted assassination as " an affray be- 
tween James P. Casey and James King, of 
William." "Motives of delicacy, needless to 
explain, force us to abs^tain from commenting 
on this affair," said the editor. He confessed 
that in times past he had sustained the Vigil- 
ance Committee, but now "justice was regular- 
ly administered," and there existed " no neces- 
sity for such an association." 

The Sun and the Glohe abstained from edi- 
torial comments. The (7Ai^'om(??(? called for jus- 
tice. " Let reason and law — nay, make reason 
and law vindicate the outraged laws and peace 
of society." It almost suggested, but did not 
quite, that the people assume the functions that 



436 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA- 

the officers of the courts had so long neglected 
to employ. The Alta spoke out decidedly that 
1856. the tmie to stoj) such outrages had come. The 
BvUetin appeared that evening with a blank 
column in place of a leader. It narrated the 
story of the assassination minutely, and its cor- 
respondence teemed with calls for instant popu- 
lar organization. On Friday it received over a 
hundred letters, most of which advocated speedy 
action by a Vigilance Committee. The Pacific 
(a religious paper edited by a Congregational 
clergyman) said, "Casey ought to be hung. Be- 
lieve it who will," that, left to the coui'ts, he will 
be ; " we do not." Said the Christian Advocate 
(the Methodist organ), "Providence is a farce 
and justice a lie, or the doom of the ungodly in 
this city is at hand." The other papers spoke 
freely, and nearly to the same point. 

If the newspapers reflected the public senti- 
ment — and probably nowhere else in the w^orld 
are the papers more generally read, or do they 
more truly speak for the whole people — ^there 
was a very strong majority demanding the for- 
mation of a vio;ilance committee, and thoroui^h 
radical work by it. The Globe spoke out, like 
most of the other papers, on the second day. 
The Herald consistently opposed the Vigilance 
Committee ; but its course cost it dear. It had 
been the leading commercial and news journal 
of the coast. The day that "motives of deli- 



PERILOUS TIMES FOR NEWSPAPERS. 437 

cacy " led it to treat of tlie attempted assassina- chap. 
tion of King as " an affray," subscribers to the ^_I^_L 
number of two hundred and twelve stoj)ped 1856. 
their paper. Two hundred and fifty importers, 
merchants, and jobbers notified the auctioneers, 
who had, as a body, used it as their advertising 
medium, that they should not longer subscribe 
for it. So the auctioneers took their advertis- 
ing over to the Alta^ which waxed strong at 
once on the patronage ; for in those days the 
paper that had the auctioneers' advertisements 
was necessarily the leading commercial organ. 
The Herald shrank in its dimensions next morn- 
ing, and never regained its former prestige. 
The Sun soon ranged itself with the Herald in 
the opposition. It was a political sheet, of 
Democratic faith — for Bigler and Buchanan, 
and against Broderick. It was temperate but 
firm in its opposition, and made light of its 
lack of support — presenting, some days, under 
regular advertising heads, whole or half col- 
umns of blanks, as much as to say, " We reserve 
vacant and in order the space that our patrons 
will be sure to want so soon as this little flurry 
is over." 

But it was no " little flurry." The Vigilance 
Committee — to this day it is hard to say how 
it started and was organized — was in session 
from nine in the morning until a late hour in 
the evening of the 15th. It was said, that 



438 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, within thirty hours after King was shot, they 
„^]_^_J, had twenty-five hundred names enrolled on 
1856. their books, of men who pledged themselves to 
work together for the purging of the city of its 
late " ruling classes," the gamblers, ballot-box 
stuffers, jury packers, foreign convicts, swindlers, 
thieves high and low, and of villains generally. 
Hundreds were waiting their turn, all day, to 
register themselves. 
Mayia The meetings of the committee were held 
with closed doors. The secrecy of its opera- 
tions terrified the guilty, and large numbers of 
suspicious characters departed up the river, or 
scattered over the stage routes into the country. 
Some bolder ones attempted to get inside of 
the organization. Perhaps some of these suc- 
ceeded; but if they did, they did not tarry 
long, for " the all-seeing eye" that was printed 
on the committee's ofiicial paper looked inside 
as well as out of the committee. 

Mayor Van Ness telegraphed to the Governor 
that his presence was required. His Excellency 
hastened down from Sacramento, had an inter- 
view ivith leading citi2;ens and the city authori- 
ties, and by his advice Sheriff Scannell admit- 
ted some twenty persons, as a delegation of 
the Vigilance Committee, into the jail, to keep 
guard over Casey. 

King still lingered ; sometimes improving a 
little ; then again giving signs that his wound 



THE PULPIT ON THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. 439 

was fatal. Bulletins were posted about the chap. 

• • • XXX 

town, detailing his condition, which were con- i_^_J 
suited by crowds. 1856. 

Sunday was a day of gloom and sadness, ^^y^^- 
The churches were perhaps more thronged than 
usual. The Eev. IVIr. Lacy (Congregational- 
ist), according to previous announcement, took 
for his subject. Law and Heligion. The Kev. 
Mr. Cutler (Unitarian) dwelt on the exciting 
topics of the week. The Kev. Mr. Brierly, at 
the Baptist church, discussed the matter that 
engrossed all thoughts. Indeed, the Protestant 
pulpit throughout the State very generally 
availed itself of the great overshadowing event, 
to make research for the principles that lie at 
the base of all substantial human governments. 
The Rev. J. A. Benton (Congregationalist), at 
Sacramento, said : " A people can be justified 
in recalling delegated power and resuming its 
exercise" — guarding his statement with the 
further remark, that " like every such remedy 
and lesort, it must be reserved for rare oc- 
casions and the most trying emergencies." 

But while, in San Francisco, a portion of the 
community were listening with the closest at- 
tention to sermons on what filled every man's 
thoughts, a larger portion were in the streets. 
The members of the Vigilance Committee, or so 
many of them as had received the hasty notice, 
issuing from their places of rendezvous, armed 



440 THE niSTOIlY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, with muskets, rifles, or revolvers, and nmseless, 
■^^^' except as tlieir tramp rang out from the pave- 
185G. ment, marched through the most public 
thoroughfares to the jail on Broadwa}^ There 
were twenty-four companies represented. Per- 
haps half the complement of each (which was 
one hundred) were in the procession. 

Soon a brass cannon was placed in the street, 
facing the jail door, and the roofs of the neigh- 
borina: houses were covered with riflemen. 
A committee from this armed and noiseless 
crowd waited upon Sheriff Scannell, and de- 
manded the surrender of Casey. With scarcely 
a minute's parley the jail door was thrown 
open. Casey at first remonstrated, and ex- 
pressed some indignation that " Scannell too 
had deserted " him. But he was shown how 
vain opposition would be. Casey drew a con- 
cealed knife, and said that no person should 
put irons on his limbs. He was told that the 
committee would have him dead or alive. 
Thereupon he submitted to be handcuffed, and 
was taken to a carriage, which, under guard of 
two hundred men, was driven to the commit- 
tee's head-quarters in Sacramento Street. 

After Casey had been driven off, the special 
committee returned to the jail, and demanded 
Cora, the murderer of Marshal Richardson. 
There was a little delay about this, but in about 
an hour he too was produced, and put in a close 



JAMES king's ])EATH. 441 

carriasfe, whicli tliree members of the committee chap. 
entered. Two other carriages, filled with mem- ._^_ 
bers, followed, and, with a company of guards 1856. 
marching on either side, they proceeded to ^^ ' 
head-quarters. All this was done so quietly 
that the people in the churches knew nothing 
of it until services ended. 

A little after noon of the 20th of May, six 
days after he was shot, James King, of Wil- 
liam, died. It was known instantly upon the 
street, and the tolling of nearly all the bells 
conveyed the intelligence to every part of the 
city. By telegraph the event was known be- 
fore nio^ht throu2:hout the State. Merchants 
closed their stores, mechanics their shops ; la- 
borers stopped work at once. Very soon Mont- 
gomery Street was lined with crape. Men ap- 
peared with crape on their arms and on their 
hats. The bell-handles of many houses were 
trimmed with crape. A stranger would have 
thought a plague was raging. 

There was a general hastening of men to the 
Vigilance Committee rooms. The expectation 
was prevalent that Casey would not many min- 
utes outlive his victim. But they learned that 
the assassin was on trial, which would be calmly 
conducted, and that no step would be rashly 
taken. 

From five o'clock until late in the evening, 
King's body lay in state in a room on Mont- 



442 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, gormery Block, and tlie throng seeking aclmit- 
._^^_, tance to where it lay stretched down the side- 
1856. walks of Montgomery Street for two blocks. 
Not in San Francisco alone, but in many other 
places throughout the State, the emblems of 
sorrow were assumed l)y the people, and the 
bells tolled as if a public calamity had occurred. 
On the 2 2d, the funeral of King took place. 
May 22. More generally than upon the Sabbath, all 
places of business were closed. The body was 
taken to the Unitarian Church. The Rev. Mr. 
Cutler made a brief address, the Rev. Mr. Tay- 
lor read appropriate passages of Scripture, and 
the Rev. Mr. Lacy followed with some details 
of conversations that he had held with the de- 
ceased during his last sickness, wherein be bad 
expressed himself assured of the truths of the 
Christian reli^-ion. The whole house was at- 
fected to tears. 

Then came the procession to Lone Mountain. 
First in the line were the representatives of 
seven Lodges of the Masonic Order, in full rega- 
lia ; then the Society of Pioneers ; next the 
Sacramento Guard ; then every company of the 
Fire Department, except Crescent, No. 10, of 
which Casey was once the foreman ; then two 
hundred and fifty mounted draymen ; then one 
hundred and forty-two stevedores ; then the 
Turners in costume ; then a deputation from a 
colored society ; then a long line of mourners in 



443 

carriages. In all, the proces&ion numbered chap. 
thousands of people. Many bands of music __^^_1, 
accompanied it, but in silence, their mute instru- 185G. 
ments draped in mourning. To Lone Moun- ^^'''' 
tain, with Masonic honors, the body was re- 
signed. The spot is marked by a fine monu- 
ment that was erected by the citizens. 

The bereaved people of the State cheerfully 
accepted as their charge the support of the 
widow and orphans of their champion. Con- 
tributions io money poured in generously from 
all quarters for their benefit. The proceeds, 
amounting to over thirty-one thousand dollars, 
were profitably invested by the trustees of the 
fund and the guardians of the children. 

The same day — and those who rode most 
swiftly back from the cemetery were too late 
to witness the extraordinary sight — both Casey 
and Cora were hans-ed in Sacramento Street, 
near Davis, in front of the head-quarters of the 
Vigilance Committee. The hour, one and a 
half p. M., was chosen as the time when there 
would be the least crowd. 

The murderers had been tried by the com- 
mittee and found guilty. A trap had been 
constructed from the second-story window of 
the committee's building ; the condemned were 
placed upon it, and they were asked if they had 
any thing to say. 

James Casey was thirty-nine years of age. 



144 THE HISTORY OF CALTFOENIA. 

CHAP. He had formerly lived in New York, was tried 

XXX. • 

_^ tliere in 1849 for grand larceny, was found 
185G. guilty, and condemned to two years' imprison- 
^^ "' ment in Sing Sing. He served out his time, 
inserted a " P." in his name, emigrated to Cali- 
fornia, and soon became a most valuable assist- 
ant of the "ruling classes," as an expert at 
manufacturing election returns. When, in the 
fall of 1855, his purposes required that he 
should enter the Board of Supervisors as a 
member, he scorned the slow methods of most 
politicians, he neglected the "primary elec- 
tions " on which others set such store, and yet 
he was elected, to the astonishment of his dis- 
trict, whose foremost men did not know that he 
was running until the vote was announced. " If," 
said the JVews of that day, "if the eleven 
thousand voters are satisfied with this, if there 
is not a gallows in the land at the service of 
such wretches, so let it remain." Casey had 
visited the editor after this passage appeared 
in it, but Mr. Bartlett was amply prepared, and 
there was no collision. Casey had found the 
gallows, and now stood under it. 

He had been told the day before that he 
must die, and by the invitation of the com- 
mittee, Archbishop Alemany had visited him. 
He had property worth some thirty or forty 
thousand dollars; he appointed Charles Gal- 
lagher as his executor. The Grand Jury of the 



EXECUTIOlSr OF CASEY AND COEA. 445 

City and County had on the preceding day in- chap. 
dieted Casey, Edward McGowan, and Peter _^ 
Wightraan, for the murder of King ; but that 1856. 
fact gave him little concern. Justice was. swift- 
er than Law, and was in no mood to wait for 
her tardy companion. 

Casey was asked if he had any thing to say. 
With pinioned arms he addressed the vast con- 
gregation that stood before him. He charged 
that no one of all he saw, and especially the 
newspaper men, should call him a murderer. His 
faults, he said, were those of his education. He 
had been taught that it was his province to re- 
sent a wrong — he had done so now. He spoke 
of his aged mother — it was her pain that he 
felt. He pardoned those who took his life — he 
asked pardon of God for the guilt of his life. 
With another exclamation concerning his poor 
mother he seemed to faint. Those who were 
near sustained him, and Father Gallagher 
pressed to his lips the cross, which he kissed. 

By the side of Casey stood Cora, three hours 
a bridegroom, having been married that morn- 
ing to a public woman, who had lavished mon- 
ey not in vain for his defence before the court, 
and in all his troubles shown constant devo- 
tion. He desired to say nothing. He only 
pressed the cross to his lips repeatedly, and 
waited, without emotion, until, at twenty min- 
utes past one o'clock, the cord that held the 



446 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, outer ends of the platforms was cut, and the 

XXX • 

^__^_J, two miserable men were suspended lifeless. 
1856. Thousands of people witnessed from the 
streets and the house-tops this terrible spectacle. 
Many steamers from bay and river towns had 
come in with deles-ations to attend Mr. Kings's 
funeral. After the services in the church, and 
the procession in carriages and on horseback 
had started for the cemetery, hundreds had 
bent their way towards the committee's head- 
quarters, though without any definite idea of 
what woidd occur. A dead silence reig^ned 
over the whole assemblage when they perceived 
what was proceeding. 

As if to deepen still more the gloom of the 
day, while the procession was moving and the 
scaffold was being constructed, the Golden Age 
steamed up the bay, bringing the news that on 
the 15th of April more than one hundred of the 
natives on the Isthmus had assaulted the Cali- 
fornia-bound passengers from the Illinois^ and 
the passengers from the 6br^e6', bound eastward, 
and had massacred twenty, and severely wound- 
ed fifty or sixty more. Nothing was lacking to 
make the day thoroughly memorable. 

The bodies of Casey and Cora were given 
over to the coroner. His jury held an inquest, 
and found a verdict to the efi'ect that they 
" came to their death by hanging by the neck, 
which hanging was done })y a body of men 



EXECUTION OF CASEY AND COEA. 447 

styling themselves a Vigilance Committee of ^^^• 
San Francisco." Cora was buried on Saturday, v^-, — > 
followed to the grave by a few friends. i^^^* 

Casey's body was given to the engine com- 
pany of which he was once foreman. On the 
following Sunday the funeral took place, when 
a large procession followed the body to the 
Mission Dolores Cemetery. Not long after, a 
tasteful graystone monument was erected over 
his remains, and it is to-day one of the most no- 
ticeable structures in the old churchyard, as you 
ride along the Mission road. On one side of it 
was cut the following : " Erected by the Mem- 
bers of Crescent Engine Company, No. Ten, as 
a tribute of respect and esteem." On another 
side, cut in a white marble slab, was the fol- 
lowing : " Sacred to the memory of James P. 
Casey, who departed this life May 22d, 1856, 
aged twenty-seven years. May God forgive 
my persecutors. E-equiescat in pace." 

The day after the burial of King, movements 
about the head-quarters gave token that the May23 
Vigilance Committee meant to continue, for a 
while at least, the work it had so vigorously 
commenced. A large cooking stove, and cart- 
loads of bedding, were added to the appoint- 
ments of the upper rooms of the United States 
Appraiser's store, which they occupied. A 
heavy triangle was suspended from a frame on 
the roof, a signal stroke on which brought every 



448 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. Viojilant to his feet, and several cells were fitted 
up for the confinement of prisoners. Before 

1856, niglit, an armed detachment brought in to oc- 
cupy the cells, besides other notables, Billy 
Mulligan, one of the sheriff's deputies, Martin 
Gallagher, who had achieved renown as a ballot- 
box stuffer, and " Yankee Sullivan." Although 
James Sullivan was one of the judges of the 
election which stuffed Casey into the Board of 
Supervisors, in this emergency he remembered 
that he was not an American citizen, and ap- 
pealed to the British Consul, but in vain. Born 
in Ireland, he was transported to Sydney for 
felony, and escaped thence, leaving his true 
name, Francis Murray, behind him, but Ijring- 
ing to Sag Harbor, Long Island, the reputation 
of a prize-fighter. Very soon Sullivan removed 
to New York, where he kept, on Division 
Street, the "Sawdust House," and extended his 
fighting fame. He got the name of " Yankee " 
from the fact that he went into the ring, at one 
of his fights, with the American flag wrapped 
about his loins. In 1849, at Rock Island, Mary- 
land, he was whipped by Tom Hyer in seventeen 
minutes, the stakes being ten thousand dollars. 
In 1853, at Boston Corners, he fought with 
John Morrissey. In 1850 he came to Califor- 
nia, but tarried only a short time. In 1854 he 
came again to the State, and plunged into 



YANKEE Sullivan's suicide. 449 

tlie career of vice for whicli his previous life chap. 
had educated him. -l-r—' 

Froni the hour that he was taken prisoner, i856. 
mortal fear seemed to possess him. He ex- 
pressed deep penitence, and promised, if his 
life were spared, to reform. He was told that 
he need not fear being hanged, for the com- 
mittee would not execute any man for crimes 
that were not capital in the eyes of the law. 
He begged, that if they banished him, he might 
be sent away separate from his companions, 
who he said would kill him for what he had 
divulged. He wrote a long confession, chiefly 
regarding his election frauds, which implicated 
many parties. 

Early on the morning after the eighth night of MaySi. 
his confinement, he suddenly shouted for a glass 
of water, and, when it was brought him, he told 
the guard his dream. He had stood under the 
gallows, the fatal rope was around his neck, the 
drop was falling, when he woke strangling, 
calling for water, and in a cold sweat. The 
guard told him that he was not to suifer the 
extreme penalty, that he would only be ban- 
ished. He knew it, he said, but the crimes of 
his life haunted him, and he deserved to die. 
The guard took breakfast to him a few hours 
later, but Sullivan was dead. With a dull 
case-knife he had sawn a terrible gash in his 

29 



450 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, arm, and thus severed an artery, from whicli lie 
^ ■ bled to death. 

1856. The day before this new horror was added to 
the history of the times, Judge Terry, of the 
Supreme Coui't of the State, issued a writ of 
liaheas corpus for the person of Billy Mulligan. 
But the sheriff who attempted to serve it could 
not give the pass- word to enter the building, 
and the Executive Committee paid no attention 
to the writ. The rumor prevailed that Govern- 
or Johnson was about to issue a proclamation, 
and that he had applied to General Wool, com- 
mandant of the Pacific Department, for arms, 
and to the commander of the United States ship- 
of-war Jolm Adams, then in the harbor. To 
prevent a surf)rise, on Saturday morning — 
Yankee Sullivan then lying dead in his cell — 
the streets were cleared for two blocks each 
way from the head-quarters, six brass pieces 
were mounted, swivels loaded with grape were 
placed on the roof, two cannon guarded by 
one hundred French musketeers, were pointed 
up Sacramento Street, and two, guarded by a 
hundred riflemen, pointed down Davis Street, and 
towards the steamboat landing. The whole com- 
mittee was under arms, and the triangle was 
ready to summon other aid if necessary. There 
proved to be no need for this preparation, how- 
ever, unless the very extent of it averted the 
danger. The Governor was unfortunate in his 



A REACTION WAITED EOE. 451 

solicitations with General Wool, and tlie John chap. 

■y'V'V" 

A(Ia7ns, willing as that vessel's commander , ^_ 

probably was, did not interfere. 1856. 

On the first Sunday in June the triangle "'^®^' 
sounded the alarm. Charles P. Duane, a New 
Yorker until 1849, but from 1852 for a couple of 
years chief engineer of the San Francisco Fire 
Department, was arrested. He made consider- 
able resistance, but the clangor of the triangle 
brought out the Vigilants, armed in such num- 
bers that he surrendered and went to jail. Next 
day, " Wooley Kearney " was arrested, in whose 
house was found a ballot-box, innocent and 
honest enough to look at, but curiously con- 
trived, with sliding sides, from the grooves be- 
hind which, though locked and sealed, when 
a concealed spring was pressed, hundreds of 
ballots could be added to those deposited by the 
voters. 

The Vigilance Committee had been now, 
for a fortnight, in vigorous action. It has been 
shown that the newspapers almost unanimously 
— the clergy with astonishing boldness — the 
church almost as a church — the people, appar- 
ently for the time as one man — approved the 
formation of the committee. But it was natu- 
ral to look for a reaction after the committee 
had begun to make aiTests — after they had 
hanged two men, and a third had gone a sui- 
cide from their prison into the hands of the 



452 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

^xxx* ^^^^"^^) ^^^^ ^^i^ ^^^^^ body Lad been exposed 

• — , — ■ to the view of thousands of curious people. 

1856. But if a reaction was coming, it was time for 
it to show some tokens to that effect. Two 
daily newspapers had, after a little hesitation, 
come out in opposition to the Vigilance Com 
mittee. The lawyers, as a class, were opposed. 
Indeed, it was not so much the law as the law- 
yers that the jDeople had rebelled against. The 
judges, from their very positions, must frown 
upon the movement which dared to act as if 
justice were more sacred even than law. One 
distinguished clergyman, Dr. Scott, was known 
to lack sympathy with the committee, although 
far the greater part of his congregation belonged 
to it. The politicians, bound hand and foot to 
party, soon perceived that opposition was their 
cue. There must be in a city of so many in- 
habitants no inconsiderable numbers of con- 
servative men, who, after winking at the exe- 
cution of Casey, would return to their old love 
of law and order. 

So the politicians and the lawyers argued, 

June 2. ^iid, supposing that the time had come, the 
Herald of June 2d called for a mass meeting 
of the finends of law and order, at two o'clock 
of that day, on the plaza. 

When the hour arrived, there was a small 
gathering inside the plaza fence, and a great 
concourse outside it — placards ha.ving been 



LAW AND OEDER MEETING. 453 

posted in the neighborhood inviting sympa- chap. 
thizers with the Vigilance Committee to stay- 
outside. Alexander Campbell called the meet- i856. 
ing to order, and, on his nomination, John H. ^^® ^* 
Wade took the chair. 

As Mr. Wade began to speak, there was a 
great rush into the plaza and towards the plat- 
form. The force of the placards was exhausted. 
The " Law and Order " men said that the Vigil- 
ants were trying to create a riot and break up 
the meeting. The Vigilants protested that 
tbey were simply seeking good places to hear. 

All the speakers were lawyers — Wade, Camp- 
bell, C. H. Brosnan, Calhoun Benham, and 
Colonel E. D. Baker. While Benham glorified 
the law, and magnified the virtue of yielding it 
peaceful obedience, he unwittingly exposed the 
butt of a revolver stuck in his belt. The crowd 
cried out upon this evidence of distrust in his 
own doctrine. Benham coolly told them that 
he went prepared to enforce obedience to the 
law. 

Colonel Baker had a hard task to secure a 
hearing. He had defended Cora, and the crowd 
hissed him, groaned at him, and uttered many 
expressions of disrespect, reminding him and 
each other of the ten-thousand-dollar fee he 
was reported to have taken for that defence, 
and of his eulogy of the woman whom Cora 
had made his wife on the morning of his exe- 



454 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORTTIA. 

CHAP, cutlon. But the eloquent coloDel battled 
.^_^ bravely the storm, and conquered it at last. 
1856. While he was speaking, an attempt was made 
to raise the United States flag to the top of 
the liberty pole. When it had neared the top, 
the halyards parted, and the bunting came to 
the ground. The Vigilants cheered the inci- 
dent as an omen, saying that the flag declined 
to protect their opponents. Altogether, the 
meeting was admitted to have failed of its 
object. 



GOVERNOE JOHNSOIT INTERFEEES. 455 



CHAPTEE XXXL 

COLLISION OF THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE WITH THE 
STATE AUTHORITIES. 

Next day — it was tlie third of June — Gov- chap. 

• • XXXI 

ernor Johnson issued from the executive cham- _^_^ 
ber at Sacramento a proclamation, which de- 1856. 
clared San Francisco in a state of insurrection. 
It commanded all volunteer companies, and all 
persons subject to military duty within the coun- 
ty, to report immediately to Major-General Wil- 
liam T. Sherman (since, the hero of the Georgia 
march), and all within the third, fourth, and fifth 
districts — which included the whole territory 
from the northern line of Mendocino to the 
southern border of Tulare, and from the Sierras 
to the ocean — to be in readiness to respond to 
further orders. The Vigilance Committee it 
ordered to disband. 

Perhaps, if the Governor had been more 
prompt, this proclamation might have stimu- 
lated the coveted reaction. It came too late to 
do the opposition much good, and the Vigilants 
heard it scornfully or with quiet unconcern. 
It did not commend itself to the masses. The 



456 THE HISTORY OF CAIJTORNIA. 

CHAP, city had been for weeks orderly to an imusual 
degree. The civil courts proceeded with their 
1856. business unhindered, the criminal courts found 
' ""^''' little to do, and time hung heavy on the hands 
of the police. The coroner was seldom called, 
and inquests were few and far between. The 
morning papers omitted the item with the 
standing head — " A man found drowned." It 
was astonishing how few the man-traps on the 
wharves caught. The citizen went where he 
chose at night, and had no fear of robbery. 
The stranger saw silent men patrolling the 
streets after dark, and felt himself safe in any 
quarter. The good people of the interior 
agreed with those of the Bay City, that there 
was nothing to take up arms for ; so, wherever 
the proclamation was read, it "was duly 
laughed at." 

But the State military authorities opened re- 
cruiting offices in San Francisco, and invited 
enrolments. Nor was the appeal in vain. 
Some very shabby fellows, and not a few re- 
spectable men, who, in other times, would have 
avoided all military connections, as foreign to 
their taste, volunteered for the support of law 
and order. 

Seeing these hostile preparations, the Vigil- 
ants opened their books for new enlistments. 
Meanwhile they kept on with their main work, 
notifying dangerous persons what day must be 



HE PEOCLAIMS A^ ESTSUREECTIOlSr. 457 

tbeir last on the coast, and shipping some of chap. 
their prisoners. They put their head-quarters v_^ 
in order and fortified them. To make sure 1856. 
against surprise, they constructed a bulwark 
six feet high, of a double row of gunny-bags 
filled with sand, from the front corners of their 
building to and along the centre of Sacramento 
Street. Chinks between the bas-s were left for 
port-holes, through which protruded occasion- 
ally the muzzles of sundry cannon — ships' guns 
mounted for land service. They called their 
secure retreat, thus fortified, " Fort Vigilance." 
The opposition named it " Fort Gunny-Bags." 
They forbade the use of spirituous liquors in 
their buildings. The triangle on the roof they 
replaced with a bell. They gathered in more 
small-arms, and the numbers on whom they 
could rely to use them grew daily. Their place 
was always well garrisoned, and they had 
twenty-five cannon at their command. 

When the j^roclamation had been four days JuneT. 
before the public, a committee of foremost citi- 
zens, among whom were Colonel Joseph B. 
Crockett, F. W. Macon dray, Henry S. Foote, 
Balie Peyton, and John Sime, by previous ar- 
rangement, met Governor Johnson at Benicia, 
where he was in company with Volney E. 
Howard, Judge Teiiy, and other advisers, and 
respectfully petitioned His Excellency not to 
precipitate a collision. They represented that 



458 TIIE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, they were autliorizecl to say that the Vigilance 
,_^__, Committee would desist from the exhibition of 
1856, armed forces in public, and would obey the 
writ of habeas corpus, if they could have as- 
surances that the State authorities would pro- 
ceed no farther in opposition. The Governor 
put his brief answer in writing. He would 
certainly do all that he could to avert unneces- 
sary bloodshed, but he should execute the laws ; 
and, if a collision occurred, the responsibility 
must rest on those who disresfarded the author- 
ity of the State. 

Before the parties separated after this fruit- 
less meeting, General Sherman put into the 
hands of the Governor his resio-nation of the 
command of the second division of the State 
militia. In a card that he published, he re- 
minded the public that he was no advocate of 
the Vicrilance Committee. He had tried to 
enroll the militia of his district, and had prom- 
ised to arm them, basing his promise upon 
the verbal assurance of General Wool (then 
commanding the Pacific Department of the 
United States Army) to Governor Johnson, 
that he would issue sufficient arms for the emer- 
gency, upon call. But when the requisition was 
made. General Wool had changed his mind, and 
refused the arms. He (General Sherman) had 
counselled moderation and forbearance ; as this 
counsel did not seem to coincide with the Gov- 



GENEEAL SHERMAN EESIGNS. 450 

ernor's views, he thought it best to resign his chap. 
commission. The Governor accepted the res- 
ignation, and appointed Volney E. Howard i856. 
Major-General in Sherman's stead. 

General Wool took ample notice of this slur 
that Sherman cast on his firmness or veracity, 
afterward, when it was repeated from another 
quarter. For the present he sim23ly ordered 
the observance, on the part of the army officers, 
of the strictest neutrality. 

About this time news came from Washing- 
ton that Philip Herbert, one of the California 
members of Congress, had killed a waiter at 
Willard's Hotel, because the waiter had an- 
swered impudently his imperious orders after a 
debauch. Then, on the same day that a fatal 
affray was telegraphed as occurring at Coloma, 
it was announced that a gambler, who had for- 
merly drawn pay for work not done as a copy- 
ing clerk at the San Francisco Hall of Records, 
had shot an officer of the law at Sacramento. 

By the Herbert affair the people felt that 
they were disgraced throughout all Christen- 
dom. The other acts of violence would not 
have caused the slio-htest sensation at another 
time, but now they fell like sparks on tinder, 
kindling a determination all through the State 
to see the end at once of a condition in society 
wherein the average standard of morality was 
lower than that of the majority. They burned 



460 THE HISTOEY OF CATJFOElSriA. 

CHAP, to let the world S9e, by the clearest proofs at 
_^ home, that though their representative had 
1856. proved a murderer, he did not fairly represent 
California society. They had meetings in many 
towns, in which they denounced the Governor's 
proclamation, and in some cases passed resolu- 
tions assuring the Vigilants that when they 
took up arms, it should be to defend reform and 
punish villains. Many military companies dis- 
banded to prevent any awkward contingencies, 
in which they followed an example that had 
been set in San Francisco, where some on so 
doing surrendered their arms to the State, and 
others took theirs to the Vigilance Committee, 
as the real representatives of the people. 

On the 9th of June the Vic^ilance Commit- 

June 9. tee issued an address to the public, in which 

they rehearsed the circumstances that led to 

their organization, and put forth the philosophy 

on which they justified it : — 

Self-government was the people's inalienable 
right. From the people emanated the right of 
their own representatives to enact laws, and of 
their honestly elected officers to execute them. 
When the enacted laws failed of execution, it 
was the people's right to resume the power 
that they had delegated, or which had been 
usurped. In this case, three-fourths of all the 
people of the State sympathized with and en- 
dorsed their efforts at reform. It did not fol- 



THE VIGILAITCE ORGAOTZATION. 461 

low, because tliey had not seen fit to resume chap. 

• XXXI 

all the powers confided to executive or legal ^^,^ 
officers, that they were not at liberty to with- 1856. 
draw the authority of unlawful servants who 
used authority to thwart justice. The com- 
mittee had been intrusted by the people with 
the task of gathering evidence, and, after trial, 
of expelling ruffians and assassins who had out- 
raged peace and good order, violated the ballot- 
box, and overruled law. Tbey would spare no 
pains to avoid civil war, but their work they 
must do ; the reform in hand they had pledged 
their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred hon- 
or to accomplish. When it was finished they 
would resign their power into the hands of the 
people. 

In 1849 a Vigilance Committee had been 1849. 
organized to put down " The Hounds." In 1851, i85i. 
when the " Sydney Coves " became intolerable, 
a Vigilance Committee suddenly came to the 
rescue. A scrutiny of the names on its rolls 
showed that it was the still extant organization 
of 1849. In 1853 the dispersed Sydney thieves 1853. 
reappeared in town, and gave due notice of 
their arrival by a repetition of their old famil- 
iar acts of violence. One morning, a notice 
was published in a newsj^aper, requesting the 
Executive Committee of the Visrilants of 1851 
to meet. That was enough. It does not ap- 
pear whether the meeting called, for was ever 



462 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORiaA. 

CHAP, lield, but the Sydneys took the hint and slipped 

^^^^- out of sight. Upon the death of James King, 

1856. the aroused people found the hull of the old 

organization, which had never been formally 

broken up, and built it up to the formidable 

Vigilance Committee of 1856. 

Those who joined it signed a constitution, 
which explained its object in a general way, 
and agreed to be governed in matters of detail 
by a set of by-laws, which were never publish- 
ed. They denominated themselves " The Com- 
mittee of Vigilance," an association for the pro- 
tection of the ballot-box, the lives, liberty, and 
property of the citizens and residents of San 
Francisco. "We do bind ourselves," said they, 
" each unto the other by a solemn oath, to do 
and perform every just and lawful act for the 
maintenance of law and order, and to sustain 
the laws when faithfully and properly adminis- 
tered. But we are determined that no thief, 
burglar, incendiary, assassin, ballot-box stufFer, 
or other disturber of the peace, shall escape 
punishment, either by quibbles of the law, the 
carelessness or corruption of the police, or a 
laxity of those who pretend to administer jus- 
tice." They agreed to keep open, night and 
day, rooms for their deliberations, with always 
one in attendance to receive from members re- 
ports of acts of violence, and, if an emergency 
demanded it, to summon the committee for 



THE VIGILANCE OEGANIZATION. 463 

siicli action as a majority when assembled chap. 
should determine on. It was the duty of the ^_^_^ 
Executive Committee chosen by the General 1856. 
Committee to decide upon the measures neces- 
sary to carry out the objects of the association, 
and to call into conference a Board of Dele- 
gates, consisting of three from each subdivision 
of the General Committee, v^hen the subject of 
their determination was grave. The associa- 
tion was to be kept free from all considerations 
or discussions of sects, sections, or politics, and 
any orderly citizen, irrespective of nativity, party, 
or sect, could join it. No accused person could 
be punished until after fair and impartial trial 
and conviction. The General Committee wer^e 
to be bound by the decision of the majority, on 
any question submitted by the Executive Com- 
mittee ; but, as to the punishment of criminals, 
the death penalty could only be enforced when 
two-thirds of those present approved it. Fi- 
nally, they said, " believing ourselves to be exec- 
utors of the will of a majority of our citizens, 
we do pledge our sacred honor to defend and 
sustain each other in carrying out the deter- 
mined action of this committee, at the hazard 
of our lives and our fortunes." 

The Executive Committee consisted at first 
of thirty-three members. A portion of the time 
they sat as a legislative body, and then again as 
a court. They had a prosecuting attorney, and 



464 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, counsel of their own number was always as- 
^_^_^ signed to defend tlie party charged with crime. 
185G. Their meetings were secret, and few of their 
proceedings were ever authoritatively pub- 
lished, or even announced to the body that ap- 
pointed them. 

Within the General Committee was a police 
organization, with a chief, and a sheriff with his 
deputies. The rest of the General Committee 
was divided into military companies — infantry, 
artillery, and dragoons — of about one hundred 
men to each company, which drilled, some at 
head-quarters, and some at apartments outside, 
provided for the purpose. A notice from the 
secretary to the captains was usually all that 
was necessary to obtain a general meeting ; but 
for sudden emergencies, there was the triangle 
on the roof, or the bell that replaced it, a tap on 
which would summon such a swarm of men 
from their business as, in the older time, noth- 
ing; but a o-eneral fire-alarm would have called 
together. The head-quarters was at once an 
armory, a drill-room, a court-room, a guard- 
house, a fort, and a secure prison. 

They got most of their cannon from the ship- 
ping in the harbor ; their muskets from their 
domiciles, from George Law's wandering stock, 
some with a lot of sabres from cases which the 
State took in charge as its contingent from the 
United States, and did not sufficiently guard, 



THE VIGILANCE ORGANIZATIOlSr. 465 

and some from the volunteer companies dis- chap. 
banded on the Governor's proclamation, who ; 

thought the people the safest guardians of their i856. 
trust. 

They never lacked funds. The wealthy men 
who went into the committee shed their money 
like water, while a great deal of the patrol, 
police, and other daily work of the organization, 
was rendered gratuitously. It was said, at the 
time, that five hundred dollars a day covered 
their expenses when most extended. 

The committee often published brief procla- 
mations, but they were only signed "No. 33, 
Secretaiy^" and impressed with the committee's 
seal — an eye. It does not apj)ear that this im- 
personal signature was ever forged, or that any 
person ever found it to his interest to utter an 
official paper with a bogus eye on it. 

A great many citizens, who never signed the 
constitution of the Vio-ilance Committee, sio-ni- 
fied their readiness to assist, whenever it should 
need outside aid. On the 12th of June there June 12 
was a meeting of such sympathizers, to the 
number of about three hundred, for conference. 
Judge D. O. Shattuck presided, and at a later 
session Balie Peyton. Ex-Recorder Baker said 
he had not joined the committee, because his 
oath as an attorney prohibited him. Ex- 
United States Senator Henry S. Foote an- 
nounced his approval of the objects of the meet- 

30 



466 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOP.iaA. 

CHAP, ing, and his sympathy with the Vigilants. A 
.^^.^ committee, on which were H. M. Naglee, La- 
1856. fayette Maynard, and Abel Griiy, presented 
resolutions, which were adopted, expressing 
confidence in the Constitution of the United 
States, and of the State, respectfully requesting 
Governor Johnson to withdraw his proclama- 
tion, recommending the press to avoid exciting 
discussions and irritating appeals, protesting 
that the term " official corruption " should not 
he construed to embrace the acts of all the ju- 
dicial officers of the county, a majority of whom 
were beyond reproach, and expressing a readi- 
ness, if disappointed in their hopes of an early 
peaceful termination of their difficulties, to or- 
ganize and maintain the right. 

This protest, limiting the scope of the term 
" official corruption," was timely and just. For, 
curiously enough, there were some excellent 
men on the bench even then in San Francisco. 
Edward Norton (who in 1861 received as high 
a compliment as the State often pays to a cit- 
izen, having been, while absent from the coun- 
try, elected to a seat on the bench of the Su- 
preme Court of California) was Judge of the 
Twelfth District Court ; but partly because he 
was particularly averse to the trial of criminal 
cases, he had very seldom to deal with the 
notorious villains who cursed the community. 
On the bench of the Fourth District Court was 



VIGILANCE MASS MEETING. 467 

Judge Hager, whose integrity was not ques- chap. 

tioned. In the Superior Court, until the Con- ^^ ] 

solidation Act legislated it out of existence, 1806. 
was Judge Sbattuck, a Vigilance sympathizer. 
Freelon was County Judge, and Mayor Van Ness 
was Police Judge or Recorder. 

As a fruit of these conference meetings was • 
the great mass meeting before the Oriental 
Hotel, held on the 15th of June. Balie Peyton June 15 
presided. Among the speakers was William 
Duer, who, in the course of his remarks, said 
that probably more than five hundred murders 
had been committed in California during the 
preceding year, yet not more than five of the 
perpetrators had been punished according to 
the forms of the law ! He enumerated some 
cogent reasons why the ballot-box, under the 
guardianship of ruffians, could not be expected 
to cure the evils they endured. In a late elec- 
tion in St. Mateo County, from three precincts, 
where there were but three hundred voters, fif- 
teen hundred votes had been returned. At 
Crystal Springs, "where there were but about 
thirty voters, five hundred votes had been re- 
turned by the agency of the same ballot-box 
stuffers who controlled the San Francisco elec- 
tions. 

But the immense audience did not remember 
the meeting so much for the speeches as for 
their sight of the famous " patent ballot-box," 



408 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, wliicli bad been captured at Wooley Kearney's 
^__^_J, house, and wliicli Colonel Peyton exhibited, as 
1856. " the orator of the occasion." 

Governor Johnson saw little at home to en- 
courage him in the thankless job he had under- 
taken, so he appealed to the powers at Wash- 
JUU&-20 ington. By the steamer of the 20th of June, 
he wrote to President Pierce a statement of the 
awkward plight of himself and the State which 
he could not govern, and an appeal for aid in 
enforcing the local laws. To be sure that his 
letter should neither miscarry nor foil to be 
pressed upon the attention of the Administra- 
tion, he also sent E,. Augustus Thompson, and 
F. Forman, postmaster at Sacramento, to deliver 
it to Mr. Pierce, and furnish such details as 
could not be embodied in a written communi- 
cation. 

A month later, Secretary Marcy wrote to the 
Governor that the President had received it, 
and given it his most careful consideration, but 
beins: troubled with serious doubts of his law- 
ful power to proceed in the manner desired, he 
had referred the sul>ject to the Attorney-Gen- 
eral, Avho found insuperable obstacles, which 
the Prasident adopted as his own. 

The Governor's communication briefly recited 
the events, which caused him to confess that he 
could not manage his own matters. Seeing 
things in a different light from that of San 



THE GOVERISrOE APPEALS TO THE PEESIDENT. 469 

Francisco, lie reported tliem as they seemed to chap. 
liim. The Vigilance Committee, he said, was _^^_^ 
formed on the 16th of May, " secret in its char- 1856. 
acter, and to the uninitiated its purjDOses un- 
known." A mob, before the committee's or- 
ganization, had attempted to "rescue" Casey 
from the officers of the law, and summarily 
punish him, but the attempt was successfully 
resisted. Meanwhile the mayor had called out 
the military forces of the city, numbering some 
ten companies ; but not more than fifty or sixty 
of all their numbers could be depended on. 
Several companies disbanded ; a large number 
of their members joined the Vigilance Commit- 
tee, cari'ying w^ith them their arms and accou- 
trements, and the only two pieces of artillery 
belono-ins: to the State. The sheriff did his ut- 
most to obtain the aid of Siposse^ but not one in 
ten of those summoned would obey his call. 
On the 17th of May, three or four thousand 
men marched to the jail and demanded Casey 
and Cora. The sheriff, powerless, was fain to 
surrender them, and a few days later the com- 
mittee hung their two captives from the win- 
dows of their place of meeting. They arrested 
other individuals, and established a system of es- 
pionage unknown to the laws or usages of a re- 
public. The sheriff was, by armed resistance, 
prevented from serving a writ of habeas corpus^ 
issued by a judge of the Supreme Court of the 



470 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 

CHAP. State, on one of their prisoners, and the person 
" ^^' for whom the wi'it was issued was, with others, 

1856. transported beyond the limits of the State, 
while one prisoner, rather than submit to be 
banished, committed suicide in his cell. The 
Governor said he had detailed to General Wool, 
in a personal interview, the condition of affairs, 
and shown him that he was almost destitute of 
arms, and entirely destitute of ammunition ; and 
the general had "unhesitatingly promised" to 
furnish on his requisition what arms and am- 
munition he required. On the 3d of June he 
issued his proclamation, and a day or two after 
made a requisition, but then General Wool re- 
fused, alleging a lack of authority ! In the 
mean time the Vigilance Committee continued 
to arm themselves with muskets, and their 
head-quarters with guns, varying in size from 
six to thirty-two pounders, numbering in 
all thirty pieces; they had erected fortilica- 
tions ; proceeded with the trial and conviction 
of prisoners ; and held some still in custody, 
while others in fear had fled to remote parts of 
the State. In the streets, and throughout the cit}^, 
they harangued the people " both against the 
General and State Governments," and at least 
one of their presses had defiantly come out 
against existing authority, and called uj)on the 
people to assemble and form a new government. 
He was powerless to arrest these unlawful pro- 



THE GOVEKNOR APPEALS TO THE PRESIDENT. 471 

eeedinsrs, simply "because lie was destitute of chap. 

. . . XXXI 

arms and ammunition to equi23 a force capable v_^_^ 
of coping with them, who numbered now six or 1856. 
seven thousand, with sympathizers in large 
numbers outside. He had not muskets or rifles 
enouo;h for six hundred men — of ordnance and 
ammunition he had none. He therefore asked 
that the United States officers commanding the 
Pacific Division be ordered to issue to the State 
arms and ammunition sufficient to suppress the 
insurrection now, and at any future time when 
required by the Governor. 

Such, in substance, was the statement which 
President Pierce turned over to his Attorney- 
General, Caleb Gushing, for that distinguished 
lawyer to find good legal reasons for denying its 
petition. Mr. Gushing treated it precisely as 
if he thought it a story founded on facts. He 
perceived that Governor Johnson had forgotten 
to convene the Leo:islature, throug^h whose call 
alone the President could be moved to action ; 
and, moreover, that if the Galifornia Legislature 
had invited his interference, the statute only 
authorized him to call out the military of some 
other State, or to employ the United States 
forces — the law presuming that a Governor will 
always be competent to call out his own State 
militia. In the present case, there were no cir- 
cumstances of superlative exigency, there was 
no actual shock of arms. The constitutional 



472 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, power of the State had not been exhausted — 
it had not even been exerted ; and so Mr. Cush- 

1856. ing, not presuming to say that the President 
had not moral authority in his discretion, con- 
cluded that he had not sufficient legal justifica- 
tion for acceding to Governor Johnson's request. 



THE VIGILANTS SEIZE THE STATe's AEMS. 473 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE ASSUMES MORE 
DOUBTFUL POWERS. 

If tlie Governor had waited until tlie next chap, 
steamer, lie might have made even a stronger _^^ 
case to the Government, for the Sierra Nevada i856. 
had not been twenty-four hours out of port 
when the Vigilance Committee assumed some 
new and still more startling responsibilities. 
They learned that the Governor, having ob- 
tained a portion of the State's quota of arms, 
was shipping them from up the river to the 
care of General Howard at San Francisco. They 
heard that some of these were on board the 
schooner Julia., which had already left Sacra- 
mento, and they deemed it essential to the pub- 
lic peace that they should never arrive at their 
appointed destination. So, on the evening of 
the 20th of June, J. L. Durhee, with a detach- June 20 
ment of Vicilants in a craft obtained for the 
purpose, went up the bay as far as the islands 
called " The Sisters," and lay-to. In the course 
of the night the Julia came gliding down. 
Durkee's party boarded her, showed Vigilance 



474 THE HISTOET OF CAL^IFOKNIA. 

CHAP, authority for what tliey did, took out one liun 
_J_,' dred and fifty muskets and tlie anamunitiou, 
1856. which were in charge of Reuben Maloney and 
John Phillips, let the men go, but conveyed 
the property to the city, and before the people 
were stirring, lodged it safely in the commit- 
tee's arsenal. 

Soon afterwards another j)arty of Vigilants 
boarded a schooner in the bay which had neared 
the wharf, and was loaded with a cargo of 
bricks. The Vigilants, turning up a few courses 
of bricks, came down upon twelve cases of rifles 
and six cases of ammunition — another remit- 
tance from the Governor's treasured supply for 
General Howard's militia. Of course they were 
all transferred to the Vigilants' arsenal without 
delay. 

When the Vio-ilants' Executive Committee 
June 21 met on Saturday (June 21st) to hear the re- 
ports from these expeditions, they concluded 
that they ought to have Reuben Maloney be- 
fore them to testify as to the circumstances of 
the shipment of the arms, and ordered Sterling 
A. Hopkins, of their police, to produce him. 

Hopkins, with two assistants, went at once 
to the oflice of Dr. H. P. Ashe, the United 
States Navy Agent, at the corner of Washing- 
ton and Kearny streets, over Palmer, Cook & 
Company's banking-house. They found the 
man sought, and several others whom they did 



A STREET COLLISIOIS^. 475 

not seek — amon^ them Dr. Ashe, who was a cnAP. 

• • XXXII 

captain of one of the Governor's military com- 
panies, and David S. Terry, an Associate Justice i856. 
of the Supreme Court. As these two gentle- ^'^^'' ' 
men assured Hopkins that no arrest could be 
made in their presence, he returned to the com- 
mittee-rooms, where, heing furnished re-enforce- 
ments, he was ordered to make the arrest at all 
hazards. 

So soon as the Vigilant police had left their 
presence. Judge Terry, armed with a rifle and 
bowie-knife, Dr. Ashe carrying a lifle, and 
others armed with pistols, descended to the 
street, as an escort for Maloney, whom they de- 
signed to take to the Dupont Street Armory, and 
leave him in care of the Law and Order troops. 
They had not gone far up Jaclison Street, when 
Hopkins's party overtook them. Terry's coin- 
pan}^ turned and faced them as they approached, 
bringing their arms into a threatening position 
and warning them to keep back. Hopkins 
sprang upon Terry, and Oflicer Bovee upon Dr. 
Ashe. The doctor surrendered, but -Terry 
struggled manfully. A pistol was fired acci- 
dentally in the crowd that gathered, and the 
great confusion made the exact process of events 
a difficult thing to describe. Terry surrendered 
his rifle at last, but, as he did it, he caught out 
his bowie-knife and plunged its blade into Hop- 
kins's neck, severing the cai'otid artery, and mak- 



476 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, ing a wound which for many days thereafter 

,_^_,' threatened to prove fatal. In the excitement 

185G. of the moment it was not generally known that 

^'^^^ ■ Hopkins was wounded, nor until after Terry 

and his friends, including Maloney, had escaped 

to the armory. 

Meanwhile the Vigilance bell sounded, and 
men from all corners of the city were gathering 
to head-quarters. Draymen stopped in the 
street, freed from their carts their horses, 
mounted, and went clattering to the rendezvous. 
Storekeepers locked up hastily and ran. Clerks 
leaped over their counters ; carpenters left the 
shaving in the plane ; blacksmiths dropped the 
hammer by the red-hot iron on the anvil ; 
schoolmasters dismissed their pupils. It seemed 
as if the whole male population, on foot and 
on horseback, was hurrying to Sacramento 
Street. Occasionally one would be seen stem- 
ming the tide, running against the current to 
the armory. These were the Law and Order 
men, availinn; themselves of the Vis-ilant alarm 
to gather at their head-quarters. In three 
quarters of an hour after the alarm was sounded, 
every armory in the city, and every house 
where it was suspected that the Law and Order 
people had concealed any store of arms, was 
surrounded by armed Vigilants. 

The iron doors and shutters of the Blues' 
armory on Dupont Street were closed as the 



JUDGE TEREY IK PEISON". 477 

main body of the Vigilant troops drew up chap. 
about it, and for a time it was supposed that "_^_J 
resistance would be made. But soon Dr. issfi, 
Ashe appeared at a window with a message 
from the beleaguered, asking a conference as to 
the terms of capitulation. The Vigilants de- 
manded, first of all, the surrender of Judge 
Terry and Reuben Maloney. Very soon after, 
these worthies were produced, and, together 
with Dr. Ashe, were conveyed to Fort Vigil- 
ance. The armory, with its three hundred 
muskets, was soon turned over to the besiegers, 
who, with their prize, marched oif to the next 
armory, planted a cannon before the door, 
drew up in line, and demanded a surrender. 
Colonel West commanded at the California Ex- 
change Armory. When the order to surrender 
came, he ran his eye along his little force of 
seventy-five men, then glanced at the surging 
multitude outside and at the cannon, thought 
how useless it would be to sprinkle the streets 
with blood, and ordered his men to stack their 
arms. It was the same story at all the rest. 
By six o'clock the whole job was completed ; 
there was not one of the two thousand mus- 
kets, and scarcely a pound of powder, which 
the Governor or his Law and Order men con- 
trolled in the morning, that was not now in 
Vigilant hands, and all the men found in the 
armories had been marched off", two and two, to 



478 THE HISTOET OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAR Fort Vigilance. Next morning all tlie State's 

■ soldiery were diseliarged. 
180G. It was a heavy day's work, tliat 21st of June. 
Three days before, the committee thought itself 
almost ready to lay down its power. Now it 
found itself possessed of arms enough, in an 
attitude of defiance of the State executive, in 
dano-er of a collision with the Federal authori- 
ties if it should turn out that the arms taken 
from the Julia and the Mariposa were not 
State but United States property, and with a 
Supreme Court judge on its hands as a j^risoner 
whose victim was expected to die. 

If Hopkins should die, it must go hard with 
Terry, for in those days murder by a judge was 
held to be as heinous a crime as murder com- 
mitted by an untitled ruffian. It would be 
very awkward for the committee to hang a 
judge. If they should do it, it would be like 
suspending the whole Supreme Court. Judge 
Heydenfeldt was at the East on a visit. Chief- 
Justice Murray was still in the State, but he 
was under the ban. He had more than once 
had his personal encounter in the streets of 
Sacramento, and there was, on the part of the 
newspapers, a pretty vigorous demand for his 
removal. 

While the ugly gash in Hopkins's neck re- 
fused to be healed, the shadow of the gallows 
must have darkened Terry's cell; something 



GENERAL HOWARD's OFFICIAL REPORT. 470 

made bim moody and tame. When it healed chap. 

• XXXII 

and the wounded man was clearly doing well, _.^_* 
Terry recovered his defiant air, and bore him- 1856. 
self like a high judicial officer, though in du- 
rance. 

He had very busy Mends at work planning 
his release. Major-General Volney E. Howard 
hurried up to Sacramento, and, to an assembly 
in front of the Orleans Hotel, told the story of 
his friend's cajDture ; but his audience turned 
his speech into ridicule, and testified their sym- 
pathy with the committee. 

The general then presented to the Governor 
an " official report " of all these late proceedings, 
in which the story was told with some varia- 
tions from what was accepted popularly as the 
true version. He said Terry inflicted the wound 
on Hopkins while the later was trying to draw 
a pistol, and expressed his opinion that if Hop- 
kins died it would be a clear case of justifiable 
homicide. Being authorized by Ashe, from the 
second-story window of the Blues' Armory, to 
negotiate for the judge, he promised the Vigil- 
ance Committee that Terry should deliver him- 
self up to the civil authorities, if they would 
raise the siege. This they refused. He de- 
tailed the seizure of the State's arms in the city 
and on the bay. He said that George Law's 
roving muskets had arrived at the port, and had 
been seized or purchased by the Vigilants. He 



480 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, believed tliat the committee aimed at nothinof 

, ■ less than the overthrow of the State GoverD- 

1850. merit and secession from the Federal Union ! 
Though the French Consul had ordered all 
French citizens to withdraw from their treason- 
able connections, several hundred of them still 
remained in the Vigilance organization — and he 
blackened their character without scruple. He 
admitted that crime very often went unpunished 
in San Francisco; it was, however, not because 
judges were corrupt, but because the men who 
constituted the Vigilance Committee had so 
persistently shirked jury duty — in which state- 
ment the general told at least a portion of the 
truth. 

Terry found another valuable friend in an 
unexpected quarter. Judge D. O. Shattuck, 
whose sympathies with the reformers had been 
clearly displa^^ed, wrote a card to the public, in 
which he took the ground that, after the proc- 
lamation of the Governor, and the organization 
of the State forces in opposition to the people, 
they were in a state of war. When Terry 
stabbed Hopkins, he was in company with a 
legal armed force (that is, Dr. Ashe, cajitain of 
a militia company) resisting the officers of a 
bellisrerent. Hence he was entitled to be 
treated as a prisoner of war, and hanging him 
would be in contravention of the usages of 
civilized belligerents. The argument command- 



teeey's feiends. 481 

ed no respect, but its author did, and still Judge chap 
Terry lay in the Sacramento Street prison, and ,_^_^' 
was refused, after a few days, even the presence 1856. 
of his wife. 

There was a deal of clamoring for Terry to 
resign his judgeship. While his prospects were 
most dubious, a letter from his wife to the peo- 
ple was published. In it that lady expressed 
her confidence that the judge would resign if 
the wish of the people to such eifect could be 
clearly indicated. 

After this, and while Hopkins was doing 
very well, three commissioners came down from 
Sacramento to negotiate for an adjustment of 
difficulties.- They were Colonel Zabriskie, 
General James Allen, and Dr. C. B. Zabrislde. 
They met the Executive Committee of the Vigil- 
ants, stated their authority and errand, and re- 
ceived permission to pass a sealed letter to 
Judge Terry. In that letter they referred to 
Mrs. Terry's intimation, and ashed what he 
would consider a satisfactory expression of the 
will of th® people, and invited him to suggest 
some means of ascertainino; it. 

The judge replied that he would like to con- 
sult with his friends, but, he wrote, " If I leave 
this building alive, I leave it as Justice of the 
Supreme Court of this State, and no power on 
earth can make me change this resolution," 
Hopeless as this made the case, the commission- 

21 



482 THE IIISTOET OF CALIFOENIA. 

xxxu ^^^ obtained permission for A. P. Crittenden to 
V— Y-^ visit the judge in his cell, and through him 
185G. came a proposition for discovering the wish of 
the people. Let Terry be tried by an impar- 
tial jury, and, if found guilty of any offence, he 
would resign. 

That ended nesfotiations. The committee 
wonld give him all the trial he would get. 

The commission tried to keep its mission se- 
cret, but it leaked into the newspapers. Then 
it was whispered that the Governor never au- 
thorized the negotiation ; then it was openly 
said that he rej^udiated it. 

This brouo;ht a full statement, from Colonel 
Zabriskie, of the facts, though it was an ungra- 
cious task, as the Governor's wife was the colo- 
nel's daughter. The colonel said he had in- 
deed no written authority, but* none the less 
had attempted the negotiation at Governor 
Johnson's request, made before witnesses ; just 
as, a while before. Judge Monson and Charles 
T. Botts had been intrusted with a similar un- 
dertaking. The terms of peace which he had 
been authorized to propose were these : The 
Vigilance Committee to deliver Terry over to 
the legal authorities, to restore the State arms 
to the Governor's possession, and to disband. 
The Governor to recommend to the Legislature 
the passage of a General Amnesty Act, to ad- 
vise the authorities in San Francisco not to 



terry's case iisr the u. s. senate. 48ci 

prosecute for acts clone by or at the instance of chap, 
the committee ; to use his influence, if prosecu- 
tions were commenced, to have them quashed, i856. 
and, if convictions were found, to grant uncon- 
ditional pardon. This statement was indorsed 
by Colonel Zabriskie's colleague, and the names 
of witnesses to the executive's authorization 
were given. Still, when the negotiations fell 
through, the Governor repudiated the commis- 
sioners, and the father-in-law repudiated the 
Governor. 

Terry found friends in still higher charters. 
The news of his incarceration went to Texas, 
the State whence he emigrated to California. 
The Texas Legislature, being in session, prompt- 
ly prepared a memorial to Congress, prayhig, if 
the Federal Government or Congress could con- 
sistently, that 'it would interfere in his behalf. 
This memorial Sam Houston presented to the 
Senate on the 29th of August, and the judge Au,ij.29. 
became the topic of the morning hour. Mr. 
Houston simply called attention to the evidence 
of the intense interest that the case excited in 
Texas, which was proven by the memorial. He 
remarked that while in Texas, Judge Terry had 
borne a high character as an honorable man, 
and was an ornament to the community. Mr. 
Brown stated that a more honorable man than 
Judge Terry did not breathe the air of heaven. 
He had known him from infancy, and his pa- 



484 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, ents before him, and all liis connections. 

^^^^^^- There was not a blemish on his character. 

1856. But John Bell, of Tennessee, saw the matter 
in a different light. He had in his pocket a 
letter from a gentleman in whom he put great 
confidence, who bore testimony to Terry's 'high 
character, but who alleged that it was his rash 
impulsiveness that got him into this trouble ; 
and that if it had not been for this unfortunate 
occurrence, the Vic-ilance Committee would 
have been dissolved before that time. The 
writer of the letter was not a member of the 
committee, but was deeply concerned for Terry's 
safety. He stated in his letter that there was 
no party interest involved in the formation of 
the committee, and no disloyal sentiment about 
it. An attempt was afterwards made to give 
it a party complexion, but it was without foun- 
dation or success. 

Mr. Weller, of California, entirely disagreed 
with Ml". Bell. He believed that the commit- 
tee, after executing two or three men, and caus- 
ing the deportation of ten or fifteen more, 
would not stop there. If they had five thou- 
sand men under arms, he was satisfied they 
would preserve their organization until the 
next Presidential term. Judge Teny was an 
honorable, high-minded, prudent man, who felt 
1 )ound to use the whole of his moral influence 
in favor of sustaining the laws. He would not 



THE EXILES. 485 

undertake to say whether all the members of chap. 

• XXXII 

the Vigilance Committee were loyal to the J_^_] 
Federal Government or not, but there were isog. 
men in California who were not loyal, and who 
had openly advocated secession. From the 
first Wednesday in September of that year, 
until November, there was no Legislature that 
could be convened in California, and during that 
interregnum, he thought, the President, who 
had scruples about lending the Governor aid 
Avhile the Legislature could be convened, had 
full legal authority to furnish arms and ammu- 
nition to help put down the revolution. 

The memorial was referred to the Judiciary 
Committee, and never reported upon. 

The 4th of July came and went, without any 
special celebration in the city. General How- 
ard's charge of secession tendencies, which, as 
we have seen, Mr. Weller echoed a month or 
two later in the Senate, were not deemed of 
sufficient importance to require a formal exhi- 
bition of patriotism to disprove them. 

Edward McGowan, who was under indict- 
ment as an accessory to the murder of James 
King, was, about this time, earning renown for 
his ubiquity. One day he Avas reported in 
Carson Valley, begrimed with the dust of the 
alkaline plains and the sweat of his rapid es- 
cape. The next he was said to be in Philadel- 
phia. The next he was announced in Lower 



486 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. California. Then lie was seen near Hangtown 
^___,' Creek. Then he was at Santa Barbara. This 
185(3. last report came up fully verified. He arrived 
there on horseback, found that he was recog- 
nized, and took to the tule marsh. Somebody 
fired the tules, but they were green and would 
not burn. The Vigilance Committee, hearing 
this, dispatched a schooner with ten of its po- 
licemen to Santa Barbara to capture the fugi- 
tive. When they arrived McGowan had disap- 
peared, and no one knew where he had gone. 

The question was forced on the committee, 
what they would do if their banished should 
return to the city. Charles Duane, the exiled 
ex- chief of the Fire Department, left the Golden 
Age at Acapulco, on her downward trip. When 
the John L. Stephens touched at Acapulco on 
the upward trip, Duane got on board and 
stowed himself away until the Stephens was out 
of the harbor. Captain Pierson hailed the 
Sonora, bound to Panama, put his stow-away 
on board her, and so saved the San Franciscans 
an awkward job. 

One of those who had been banished to the 
Sandwich Islands, soon after reappeared in 
San Francisco. The committee on investiga- 
tion dis'covered, and published the fact, that 
owino; to the exile's nervousness, the readinsr of 
his sentence in his hearing was omitted when 



HETHERINGTON SHOOTS RANDALL. 487 

lie went abroad. This omission saved liim from chap. 
tlie death penalty. w-v— 

It was tlie boast of the Vigilance Committee, i856. 
that, since they had taken control, deeds of vio- 
lence had become very uncommon. The streets 
at any hour of the night were safe. The man- 
traps in the wharves caught an astonishingly 
small number of victims. Whereas, before, it 
was rare to open a morning paper that did not 
have an item, "Found drowned" — and quite 
accidentally, of course ; now the coroner seldom 
held an inquest. 

But suddenly, on the 24th of July, a murder July 24 
was committed in broad daylight. Joseph 
Hetherington, an Englishman by birth, w^ho 
had lived at the South several years, and came 
to California from St. Louis — a gambler, an 
acquaintance (though not by his own volition) 
of the Vigilance Committee of 1851, and who, 
in 1853, fatally shot his man in a land dispute — 
this Hetherington had a business difficulty 
with Dr. Andrew Randall, a native of Ohio,- 
who came first to California in 1859, bring-iuo; 
with him a commission as postmaster for Mon- 
terey. Randall was afterwards a member of 
Assembly ; then a dealer in real estate ; and he 
had acquired a good deal of wealth, especially 
in land. A judgment against him for a large 
amount had been bought by Hetherington, 
and Randall refused, or at least failed, prompt- 



488 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, ly to pay it. So many hard words had passed 
,_^_,' between them, that they both went armed, ex- 
1856. pecting an encounter. 

On the afternoon of the 24th, they met in 
the St Nicholas Hotel, on Sansome Street. 
Hetherington caught Randall by the beard, 
and uttered some insulting remarks. Kandall 
felt for his pistol, and Hetherington fired. 
Several shots ]3assed between them ; Hether- 
ington's third took effect, and Kandall received 
a wound of which he died two days after- 
wards. 

A city policeman arrested the murderer, but 
the Vigilance police relieved him of his charge, 
and Hetherington went to the Sacramento 
Street prison. His trial resulted in a convic- 
tion, and the Vigilance troops were ordered to 
be in their armories at two o'clock on the 
July 29 morning of tbe 29th. By three o'clock the 
troops, to the number of three thousand, took 
possession of the streets in the vicinity of the 
gallows, which was erected on Davis Street, be- 
tween Sacramento and Commercial. An im- 
mense crowd flocked to see the execution. 

At the sio;nal from the bell, Hethering-ton 
was brouu'ht out, and with him Philander 
Brace, who had been tried and convicted of 
the murder of Captain Joseph B. West, near 
the Mission. Brace was a native of New York 
State, only twenty-one years of age, and not 



EXECUTION OF HETHEPvINGTOI^ AND BRACE. 489 

wanting in early education. He committed chap. 
tlie murder for whicli lie was now to suffer 
some two years before, and liad passed un- i85G. 
harmed through the farce of a trial by tbe 
court. After that, he spent a month in the 
county jail, in punishment for a petty larceny — 
was there arrested by the Vigilance Commit- 
tee, tried for the murder, convicted, and con- 
demned to death. 

Preceding the two doomed and pinioned 
men, as they rode towards the gallows, walked 
twenty-nine members of the Executive Commit- 
tee. On the scaffold, Hetherington bore him- 
self decorously ; but Brace, who in prison had 
evinced penitence, showed great impatience for 
the end. Hetherington addressed the crowd. 
He protested that he shot Eandall in self- 
defence, denied that he had done a dishonorable 
act, and challenged them to observe that he 
would die, as he had lived, a gentleman. While 
he spoke, Brace frequently interrupted him 
with the most horrid blasphemies, and urged 
expedition. At ten minutes of six the Vigil- 
ance bell sounded, and the drop fell. The 
bodies of Brace and Hetherington were sur- 
rendered to the coroner, who held an in- 
quest. The members of the Vigilance Com- 
mittee, who were called in as witnesses, gen- 
erally declined to answer any questions. The 
jury brought in a verdict of " death by hang- 



490 THE HISTORY OF CALnOEXI^. 

CHAP, ing, at tlie hands of — — (tliey named the 
,_^_," executioner) and a person unknown, aided and 
1850. abetted by a party of men styling themselves 
the Committee of Vigihmce of San Francisco." 

This certainly was a reio:n of terror to evil- 
doers, but not to others ; for though the usu- 
ally gay, volatile, driving town wore an air of 
" sad sincerity " during the three months of 
strict vigilance rule, men whose record was 
clean, and who intended right, felt a rare sense 
of freedom from danger. But dubious charac- 
ters were in a very unhappy way. They felt 
unsafe in the cities, and they suifocated in the 
thin air of solitary places. They could not 
well escape out of the State excej^t through 
San Francisco, and if they ventured into that 
port they were pretty sure to lodge the very 
first night in the Vigilance prison. A very bold, 
bad man might join the Committee of Vigilance 
to escape suspicion, ]jut that ]-equired a genius 
for hypocrisy to prove a success. 

Indeed, the Executive Committee arrested 
more than one of the members of the Vii^'ilance 
Committee. The brothers Green were notable 
examples : — 

Alfred A, Green had often heard old Cali- 
fornians, who when sober had never a word to 
say on the subject, babble in their cups about 
the stupid blunders of the Americans as to land 
titles ; they said the Land Commission was ah 



THE SA]S^ FRANCISCO PUEBLO PAPERS. 491 

ways confirming the fraudulent titles, and reject- chap. 
ino" genuine ones. Especially lie liad heard one ^_..^^_^' 
Sanchez say, that there was no good title to i856. 
land on the peninsula of San Francisco, north 
of the Buri Buri Kanche. General James Mc- 
Dougall filed a petition with the Laud Commis- 
sioners in behalf of the city for the pueblo 
lands. Green was among those whom McDou- 
gali employed to assist him, and he had already 
reached the conclusion from what he had heard 
the tipsy Imbbler say, that there were in exist- 
ence papers which would prove the clear title 
of the city, as the pueblo's successor, to all the 
common lands which claunants tinder a variety 
of fi-audulent claims were appropriating. Green 
mentioned his surmises to McDougall, who en- 
couraged him to proceed, then slipping a couple 
of bottles of liquor into his buggy, drove off to 
see Sanchez. 

The old Californian was pleased to see his 
visitor, and especially his bottles. They drank 
together and grew confidential. They talked 
of the changes that had come over the times, 
of the old and the new, and of titles. At last, 
Green putting on an air of indignation, charged 
Sanchez Avith slandering his countrymen, and 
saying that they held possession of their land 
under forged papers. That aroused the Spanish 
pride of Sanchez, who proceeded to make good 
his charge, and to prove that it was no slander, 



492 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, but the honest truth. He said that when the 
^_ " ■ Americans conquered the country, the old Cali- 
1856. fornians believed the English would soon come 
and restore the Mexican Government. In this 
expectation, a few of them agreed to gather up 
the public titles, not to burn, but carefully to 
conceal them. They did so, and the precious 
papers were safe now under the floor of Tibur- 
cio Vasquez's bedroom. Just as so much had 
been said, Sanchez's wife came in and begged 
Green not to pay the slightest attention to what 
he had heard, as if it were simply absurd. 
Green eased the lady's mind with a jest, and 
soon after returned home. 

He reported proceedings to General McDou- 
gal], and was advised to get the papers by any 
stratagem. No court was at that hour in ses- 
sion ; if he waited till morning, Sanchez would 
probably take measures to avert the mischief 
he had been beguiled into, and McDougall 
would be off in a few days to Washington, to 
take his seat in Congress. Time was precious. 

Green went directly to a friend and said, 
"Nat., take your pen and write," and Nat. 
Hicks wrote at his dictation an order to Ti- 
burcio Vasquez, to deliver to A. A. Green cer- 
tain papers mentioned, signed it " By order of 
the Court," sealed it with a bit of red sealing- 
wax, and stamped the seal with the face of a 
coin. Then, with his accomplice and one of his 



GEEEN's ruse to OBTAIlSr THEM. 493 

own brothers, Green rode over to Vasquez's chap. 

• XXXII 

place, handed him the order, and m a stern _^' 
voice demanded why the documents had been i856. 
concealed so long. The old gentleman listened 
to the " order of the Court," looked at the seal, 
turned pale, produced at once the papers, and 
asked for a receij^t. Green wrote a receipt, and 
signed it with his own name, though it looked 
more like a " Crane " than a " Green." 

This is the version of the story that Green 
gave four years later in court. Vasquez, under 
oath, said he was administrator, and held the 
papers in charge as such ; he kept them on a 
bench, not under the floor ; they were not con- 
cealed. An American once before had them 
for two months, took copies of them, and re- 
turned them according to agreement. He could 
not read, but when Green showed and read to 
him a letter from the Government, he delivered 
the titles and took a receipt for them. 

So Green had got the papers, but he very 
soon began to think he had won an elephant. 
He could not get rid of them again — at least 
not with any such profit as he had hoped. 
General McDougall's hasty departure for Wash- 
ington forbade nesrotiations. He called on 
Mayor Brenham, and the mayor thought he 
might decently ask fifty thousand dollars for 
them. The mayor appointed a commission to 
see the papers. Green said that on the com- 



494 THE HISTOPtY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, mission was one gentleman who, reading Span- 
,_^_^' isli, saw tlieir value, but, being interested in a 
1856. fraudulent title, assured the rest of the commis- 
sion that they were worthless. Distinguished 
counsel advised the mayor that there were val- 
uable papers in the budget, but did not advise 
their purchase, and the city did not buy. 
When C. K. Garrison was elected mayor, Green 
called on him about this business. Over a bot- 
tle of wine, Garrison told him that he had an 
interest in the Potrero ; after he got rid of that, 
and some other conflicting]: interests, he would 
join him to prosecute the city's title to the 
pueblo. He called on Colonel Crockett, but 
the colonel was retained for the Fund Commis- 
sioners to fix the Vallejo line. Green could 
not get the confidence of the press, and the 
law}^ers were against him. He lectured at 
Musical Hall, and the people were stirred with 
his story; but when they asked the lawyers 
about it, they were told that it was all non- 
sense. So his suit nowhere prospered, and the 
papers lay in a box under Green's bed, more 
jealously watched than while Vasquez kept 
them. 

Now among the multitude who rushed to 
sign the Vigilance roll, soon after James King's 
death, were this same Alfred A. Green, and 
Jolin L. Green, his brother; indeed, some said 
that all the brothers were members of the com- 



THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE GET THE PAPEE8. 495 

mittee, tliougli probably none of tliem signed chap. 
the constitution, wliicli was not prepared for v_^_,' 
signatures until the committee had been about 1856. 
a month in 02:)eration. The question of their 
membershij:), however, was not debated when 
the Executive Committee determined, in view 
of the grave interests that might be involved, 
to possess these papers for the city's sake. As 
Green had obtained them by stratagem, it 
would not be surprising if he should attempt 
to drive a very hard bargain before surrender- 
ing them, if warned of their intentions. So, 
suddenly the two Greens, Alfred A. and John 
L., were arrested, confronted with Vasquez, 
and the papers demanded. 

At first, Alfred asked fifty thousand dollars 
for his treasure. Afterwards, when he saw 
how matters Avere managed by his captors, he 
agreed to take twenty-five thousand. On that 
he was sent under escort to his house, but, 
when he arrived there, and learned how his 
family had suffered in his absence, he told his 
guards they should have his papers at no price. 
So he was taken back to his cell a2:ain, and 
there he lay a week longer. Then they gave 
him a memorandum " exculpating all his fami- 
ly," and tendered him twelve thousand five hun- 
dred dollars for his papers, which he accepted, 
his brother being dispatched for the documents, 
and executing his errand faithfully. The com- 



496 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, mittee paid tlie price, the Greens were free, and 
■ at a later date the papers, whatever they were 
1856. worth, were turned over to the city. 

All this while Judge Terry was a prisoner in 
Fort Vigilance. There was some talk of get- 
ting the United States Circuit Court judge to 
issue a writ of habeas corpus for him, which 
would have been a very good move if Judge 
McAllister could have been brouojht to issue it. 
Since Terry himself had vainly issued such a 
writ for Reuben Maloney's body, the committee 
had professed more respect for habeas co/pas- 
State officers armed with it had been politely 
admitted to the building, and invited to rum- 
mage all cells and corners, though it ha])pened 
that they could never find the men they sought. 
Maloney's testimony in court, years afterwards, 
threw a little light on this mystery. He said 
that once he was taken out of the main build- 
ing, handcuffed, and secreted in another house 
near by ; and he was told, at a later date, that 
it was because an officer was searching for 
him. 

Then, by this time, the committee had come 
to be very chary of a collision with the Federal 
Government. They had not, indeed, scrupled 
to arrest Dr. Ashe, the United States Navy 
Agent, and they had possessed themselves of 
arms which had just gone out of Federal into 
State hands. But in that case, when the 



JUDGE TERRY FREE. 497 

United States Marshal wanted Dnrkee, he chap. 

• XXXII 

found him, and Durkee was a Federal prisoner " ^_^' 

until he was admitted to bail. If the Circuit 1856. 
judge had interposed, he would have made a 
very awkward complication of affairs. But he 
declined to interfere, and about that time news 
came from the East that President Pierce did 
not see his way clear to meddle with such local 
matters. 

Meanwhile Hopkins was pronounced out of 
danger, and that fact divested Terry's case of 
its most alarmins: features. Finallv, his trial, 
which had occupied five weeks, and on which 
some hundred and fifty witnesses had been ex- 
amined, came to an end. With the adoption 
of a resolution that he was unwoi-thy the con- 
fidence of. the people, and ought to resign his 
judgeship, his case was dismissed, and at two 
and a half o'clock on the morning of the 7th of Aug. 7 
August, he was set at liberty. 

The news was received almost angrily by the 
masses of the Vio;ilants. Seeins: how strons: the 
tide of sentiment ran against them, the Execu- 
tive Committee called the Board of Deleo-ates 

o 

together, and talked over the reasons of the de- 
cision. There were l)ut two ways of dealing 
with the committee's convicts — they were doom- 
ed either to banishment or death. Terry was 
not guilty of murder, for the man he had 
stabbed was alive yet, and quite recovered. He 

32 



498 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, could not be banished without maldnof a llvino: 

XXXII • . . 

^_^_^' martyr of him, and, with the influence he could 
185(5, rally, there could be no guarantee that he would 
not return though banished. After a three 
hours' session the delegates separated, and the 
Vigilants admitted the policy, if not the impar- 
tial justice, of the decision. 

Free again, flfter nearly seven weeks of con- 
finement, Terry took the advice of the Execu- 
tive Committee, and sought refuge on board the 
United States vessel Jolin Adams, which was 
still in the harbor. There he met sympathiz- 
ing, admiring friends. When he was trans- 
ferred to the steamer bound to Sacramento, a 
gun was fired from the John Adams, and cheers 
in his honor rang out from the men in the 
rigging. Arriving at Sacramento, a torchlight 
procession greeted and escorted him to the Or- 
leans Hotel, where there were congratulatory 
speeches by Tod Robinson, Colonel E. D. Ba- 
ker, Volney E. Howard, Vincent E. Geiger, Hor- 
ace Smith, and others, and feasting until 
mornino". A few weeks later he was with 
Judge Murray " running the Supreme Court," 
which, because Terry had been in seclusion, and 
Heydenfelt was in Europe, in lack of a quorum, 
had stood idle during these stirring times. 



THE VIGILANTS PREPAEE TO DISBAND. 499 



CHAPTER XXXm. 

THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE DISBANDS. 

And now (August 12tli) the cells of Fort chap. 
Vigilance were empty. The Vigilauts had ^^' 
evinced a moderation that was marvellous, i856. 
joined with a promptness in execution that *' ^^ 
held the guilty in awe. They were disposed to 
restore the power they had used to the hands 
of those who gave it them. But dare they do 
it ? Dare they let go the tiger that they held 
by the ears? Would not the banished swarm 
back and fill the courts with complaints against 
them? Of course their exiles who stayed away 
would lie in wait for the members as they ar- 
rived at the Atlantic ports, and annoy them 
in every conceivable way. Billy Mulligan had 
already in New York exercised his muscle, pun- 
ishing some whom he came across. Would 
Judge Terry, on the Supreme Court bench, with 
Judge Murray ever ready to concur, let them 
live in peace ? Would not the State employ 
its authority to punish them for past contempt ? 
Would it be safe to disband before the Legis- 
lature should meet and pass a general Amnesty 



500 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEKIA. 

OHAP. Act ? What should they do with their arms ? 
X5XIII. rpj^^g^ were the sharp rocks long foreseen by 
1856. the Vigilants, now eai-nestly desu'ous of bring- 
ing their ship to port and beaching her. In 
self-protection the committee must act shrewdly 
in this grave^ final act of their career. 

Their opponents had always prophesied that 
they would mei'ge into a political concern. Per- 
haps it was the rapidly approaching Presiden- 
tial election that hastened them to their con- 
clusions. 

The two National Conventions had met and 
nominated. The Democrats had put foi'ward 
James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania ; the Repub- 
licans had chosen as their standard-bearer John 
C. Fremont, of California. The news had 
reached the reputed State of the latter while 
Terry was in confinement, but had scarcely pro- 
duced a ripple of sensation. The " honest mi- 
ners " in the foot-hills were eager as ever to hear 
the news "from below," but it was vigilance 
news, not political, for which they were hungry. 
The Repuldicans had as yet no organization in 
the State, and leading Democrats were setting 
their faces against the Vigilants. The Young 
Men's Democratic Club refused to admit Vigil- 
ants to membership, and Superintendent Lott, 
of the Branch Mint, gave the employes in that 
establishment the alternative of going out of 
the Vigilance Committee, if they were in it, or, 



THE VIGILANCE COMMITTEE DISBANDS. 501 

out of the mint. Clearly, it was time for the chap 
Vigilance Committee to disband, or be crowded 
into a false position; yet, before dissolving, it 1856. 
was natural to set in operation some method 
for preserving from waste the advantages that 
had been gained, and for insuring the continu- 
ance of the reforms they had begun. 

• There had been made several popular move- 
ments to induce the city officers, from mayor to 
constables, to resign. The Vigilance Commit- 
tee had not openly given these movements any 
aid, the nearest approach to it being their arrest 
of some persons who were distui'bing a public 
open-air meeting, called to forward the fruitless 
effort. The office-holders clung to their posts, 
and would not think of resigning. Happily, 
however, an act of the Lea;islature consolidating: 
the city and county into one municipality had 
gone into effect, and there was to be an entirely 
ne\v force of municipal officers elected in No- 
vember. What the committee had to do with 
the 2^^1'ty that sprang into existence in time to 
take good care of that election may hereafter 
be fairly inferred. So fai- as the open record 
goes, the Vigilance Committee, as such, had 
nothing to do with it, for now they proceeded 
to prove at once the fears of friends baseless, 
and the proi:)hecies of foes false, that, whatever 
their original intentions, they would grow enam- 
ored of power. They gave notice of prepara- 



502 THE HISTORY OF CAUFOEIOA. 

CHAP, tions to disband, and all concerned went into 

■ training for a demonstration that should carry 

1856. conviction to the eye, that in their retii*ement 

they must not he trifled with, nor trampled on. 

Monday, the 18th of August, was devoted to 

Ang, I8.a grand final parade. Business was more gen- 
erally suspended than was the custom on Sun- 
days or ordinary holidays. From all the vicin- 
ity the people swarmed in, either to see or swell 
the pageantry. At noon there was a review of 
the Vigilance troops, when five thousand one 
hundred and thirty-seven men, all well armed 
and thoroughly equipped, answered at roll-call. 
After the review came the procession through 
the principal streets. It was like a floral pro- 
cession or a triumphal march of veterans from 
the wars, so abounded the flowers whicli 
ladies showered on them as they passed, so gay 
was the display of flags, so cheerily rang out 
the music of the bands. 

At the head of the column were three com- 
panies of artillery, with eighteen pieces of can- 
non. Next came the Executive Committee, on 
horseback, twenty-nine in number, with Presi- 
dent Coleman and General Doane at their head ; 
then the mounted dragoons, two hundred and 
ninety in number ; then the medical staff of 
forty-nine physicians and smgeous, mounted; 
then one hundred and fifty members of the 
Executive Committee of 1851, carrying a flag, 



THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEe's ADDliESS. 503 

on one side of wliicli was inscribed : " Present- chap. 
ed to the Vigilance Committee of the City of ,_^_' 
San Francisco, by the ladies of Trinity Parish, i856. 
as a testimony of their approval. Do right and 
fear not. August 9th, 1851;" and, on the 
other, " The Vigilance Committee of the City 
of San Francisco, instituted June 9th, 1851, for 
the protection of the citizens and residents of 
San Francisco. — Art. I., Constitution^ Next 
came thirty-three companies of infantry ; then 
the vigilance police ; and then citizens, mounted. 
On reaching the Sacramento Street head-quar- 
ters, which had already been partially dis- 
mantled, and its sand-bag barricades removed, 
the procession halted, the military broke up by 
regiments, the companies returning to their 
armories, which wei'e still guarded by trusty 
men, and disposing of their arms. 

The Executive Committee now published an 
address to the General Committee, which, after 
a brief rehearsal of the causes and motives of 
the organization, and a statement of its results, 
recommended the members to return to their 
avocations, and forget the animosities which 
may have estranged them from those good citi- 
zens who had honestly differed with them. 
They claimed that their errors had been on the 
side of clemency. Rogues there were still un- 
punished, but the archives of the committee 
contained a large amount of testimony which 



604 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, could liereiiiter be used to punisli crime, and 

XXXIII • • 

■prevent political abuses, by the employment of 
1856. those ordinary remedies which were not likely 
to remain, as they had been, inoperative. They 
advised the General Committee to retain its or- 
ganization, Imt without active service. For 
themselves they promised to be ever vigilant, 
investigating and reforming abuses, urging and 
aiding the constituted authorities to the per- 
formance of their duties. They w^ould reserve 
the discretion to reassemble the Board of Dele- 
gates or the general body, should either of the 
following occasions demand : The return of 
the banished ; the necessity of protecting any 
member from violence or malicious prosecution, 
growing out of acts performed by authority of 
the committee ; the assault of any citizen, 
should it be apparent that the laws were ineffi- 
cient for his protection or for the pursuit of the 
offenders ; or, in case of a violation of the purity 
of the ballot-box, or the sanctity of the elective 
franchise. 

Two days later the rooms of the committee 
were thrown open to the inspection of the pub- 
lic, and many thousands of people embraced 
the opportunity to gratify their curiosity during 
the three days of the exhibition. On the first 
floor they found rooms devoted to the sutler's, 
quartermaster's, and commissary's departments, 
and a large hall, chiefly for the use of the artil- 



THE VIGILANCE ROOMS IlSrSPECTED, 505 

lery and cavalry companies. In the centre of chap. 

' XXXIII 

the hall were several brass field-pieces. There ,1^__* 
were racks of arms along the walls, which were 1856. 
relieved by the bulletin-boards and framed 
muster-rolls of the various companies, paintings, 
portraits of notables, among which figured the 
head of General Wool, flags presented by 
ladies, floral wreaths, and emblematic devices 
wrought in evergreens. The air was fragrant 
Avith the bouquets and vases of flowers that 
loaded the tables. 

On the second floor were the drill-rooms and 
head-quarters of a few of the infantry compa- 
nies, most of them renting armories in different 
parts of the city. Here many relics were 
pointed out; the ropes mth which men had 
been hanged; the burglars' tools found on 
Brace; " iihe pirate Durkee's sword" — a rusty 
blade used in the capture of the tTulia ; Terry's 
rifle ; the original patent ballot-box, and the 
muster-roll of Balie Peyton's reserve corps, 
which was never regularly attached to the 
Vigihmce Committee. Among the arms dis- 
played was the lance which a whaleman bore, 
in the silent procession that captui'ed the jail 
on Sunday morning. 

The executive chamber on this floor was 
visited, not without a sense of awe, in remem- 
brance of the grave deliberations it had wit- 
nessed. On a low platform was the president's 



506 THE inSTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, chair, behind a table furnished with bell and 
xxxiir.g.^^^^2^ 111 front was the secretary's desk, and 
1856. then the seats and tables of members. Ante- 
rooms for clerks, witnesses, and sub-committees 
opened into this room. 

The cells in which Casey, Cora, Terry, and 
other notables were confined, were pointed out, 
on the second floor. They were not such apart- 
ments as men select, as especially roomy and 
commodious, at first-class hotels, but for cells 
they were tolerable, being about seven by 
twelve feet in dimensions, and ventilated by 
auQ^er-holes and the cracks between the shrunk- 
en boards. The visitor was told that the former 
occupants had all the conveniences compatible 
with safe keeping, their meals being served at 
their order, from nei^hborino; restaurants. If 
there were any subterranean paths or secret 
passages, through which prisoners were rushed 
to the adjoining buildings, to evade the liaheas 
corpus, they escaped the eyes of the reporters, 
as well as of the multitude. 

There was still some last work on the hands 
of the Executive Committee. General Kibbe, 
Aug.23. on the 23d of August, demanded the State's 
arms and ammunition, which were needed to 
put down hostile Indians with, in Siskiyou 
County. Whether the committee doubted if 
the Indian hostilities were any thing more than 
a ricse, well calculated to enlist the sympathies 



WINDING UP. 50Y 

of the interior with the State authorities, or chap. 
thought it not yet safe to part with the arms, '^^^^' 
they refused to comply with the demand. i85g. 

On the 27th, " 33, Secretary," issued a public Aug.2T. 
notice to certain parties, among whom was a 
former supervisor of the county, who, having 
been notified to leave the State, liad fled to the 
interior, giving them opportunity to depart by 
either of the next two steamers, never to return, 
under penalty of death. 

Durkee and Rand were still to be tried in 
the Federal Court for piracy, in seizing the 
State arms on the his-h seas — that is, in San 
Pablo Bay. Both had been admitted to bail, 
soon after the offence was committed, in the 
sum of twenty-five thousand dollars each ; E. 
W. Godard, James Dowes, J. W. Brittain, and 
Samuel Soule being bondsmen for Durhee, and 
J. H. Fish, and T. J. L. Smiley, O. Arrington, 
and Jules David for Rand. On granting the 
application for admission to bail. Judge Hoflf- 
man had remarked upon the violation of law by 
the Vigilance Committee, whose order for the 
seizure was admitted. True, the peoj)le sus- 
tained them, he said, but, none the less for that, 
they had trampled on the law. 

As the law and order people expressed loudly 
their confidence that "the pirates" would be con- 
victed and punished, the committee opened its 



508 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, books asrain for the enrolment of members, and 

XXXIII • . 

'many accessions to their roll were made. 
185G. A grand jury, consisting in part of Sacra- 
mentans, was impanelled, which found indict- 
ments. Durkee's trial came first. All mem- 
bers of the Vigilance Committee were rejected 
from the jury, as were all members of the 
Young Men's Democratic Club. The testimony 
was brief; the judge charged that unless it was 
found that the prisoner had taken the arms 
feloniously for his own benefit, he could not be 
convicted. The jury were out four minutes, 
and returned with a verdict of not guilty. The 
District Attorne}^ declined to prosecute Rand, 
and that peril was passed. 

And now the Executive Committee hauled 
down their flag, closed entirely their rooms, and 
sold their furniture at auction. They kept 
sjuard for a while lomxer, but never had occa- 
sion to summon the Board of Delegates, or to 
strike the bell for another rally. 

Shall the Vigilants be judged by their fruits ? 
They took the law into their own hands and 
executed it. Law had been used as a machin- 
ery for screening villains fi'om punishment. 
They broke up the combinations of the lawless 
and set law in an honored seat again. They 
purified the city. At first it seemed as if this 
had been done at the expense of the rest of the 
State. Tlie dispersal of the city rogues led to 



SUMMAPwY OF VIGILAIN'CE WOEK. 5U9 

an unusual number of liio-liwav robberies in the citap. 

XXXIII 

interior; but the villains soon learned how truly 
the whole State sympathized with the Vigilants, 1856. 
and that they were ready on the spur of an ag- 
2jravated case to imitate the Vis^ilant method of 
quickening the steps of Justice. They made 
the ballot-box sacred once more. It was very 
certain that there would be no moi'e farces on 
election-day, and that men would be elected 
by honest votes or left in private life. Guilds 
of crime and organized gangs of thieves, burg- 
lars, and murderers were thoroughly l^roken up. 
It was loosely estimated that eight hundred 
persons, the scum of society, had been forced to 
leave the country. To secure that happy result, 
they had arrested not a few who were set free 
again on their parole. They had inflicted the 
death-penalty upon four: Casey, Cora, Brace, 
and Hetherington. The list of those whom they 
banisbed from the State was oflicially published 
by the secretary " No. 33," on the 4th of Octo- 
ber, as follows : — 

June 5th, Charles P. Duane, William Mul- 
ligan, and AVilliam alias Wooley Kearney, ship- 
ped by the Golden Age to New York ; William 
Carr and Martin Gallagher, shipped by the 
bark Yankee to the Sandwich Islands. June 
20th, John Crowe, ship2:)ed by the Sonora to 
New Orleans; William Lewis, John Lawler, 
William Hamilton, and Terence Kelly, shipped 



510 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORTTIA. 

CHAP, by the Sierra Nevada to New York. July 

XXXIII 

_^_," 5tli, James Reuben Maloney, Alexander Purffle, 
1856. alias Purple, Thomas Mulloy, Daniel Aldrieh, 
and F. B. Cunningham, shipped by the Jolm 
L. Stephens to New York. July 21st, James 
White, James Burke alias Activity, William 
McLean, and Abraham Kraft, shipped l^y the 
Golden Age to New York. August 5 th, Ed- 
ward Bulger, Michael Brannegan, and John 
Cooney, shipped by the Sonora to New York. 
September 5th, John Thompson, alias Liver- 
pool Jack, and John Stephens, shipped by the 
Golden Age to Ne^v York. 

The following were ordered to leave by the 
steamers of August 20th and September 5th : — 

W. Bagley, James Henessy, James Cusick, 
and J. D. Musgrove. 

Two of the banished and one of the executed 
were members of the Board of Supervisors. 

The Vigilance Committee had not accom- 
plished their reforms by sprinkling with rose- 
water; they had performed a most ungracious 
task. They drew a long breath and felt a grate- 
ful sense of relief when it was clearly safe to re- 
tire again to their private pursuits, and they had 
laid again upon all the people alike the burden 
of preserving the peace and maintaining order. 

We have said that most of the clergy either 
went into the Vigilance movement heartily, or 
at least stood aloof from its opponents. There 



EEV. DR. SCOTT ON THE VIGILANTS. 511 

was one notable exception. Tlie Rev. Dr. Scott chap. 
(Presbyterian), of Calvary Church, was away >_^' 
when Casey was executed, and, when he re- i856. 
turned to town, he refused to recognize the new 
measures as just or right. It was evident from 
his public prayers that he did not believe in 
them ; still he did not say any thing to offend 
his congregation, nine-tenths of whom sympa- 
thized with, or were themselves active Vigilants. 
Not until the organization had disbanded and 
a letter got back to San Francisco, which he 
had addressed to the editor of the Pacific, 
through a Philade]j)liia Presbyterian paper, 
was it seen that the Doctor had rans^ed himself 
with the opposition, and put himself on record 
as against it, while the excitement was the great- 
est. Of course the papers pounced upon him ; 
he was drawn into a discussion; the whole mat- 
ter was argued over again, and much hard feel- 
ing was produced. 

To the scandal of everybody, one Sabbath 
morning, an effigy, labelled with the Doctor's 
name, was found hanging by Calvary Church 
door. The law and order men said the Vigil- 
ants did it. The Vigilants denied it, asking 
what they could gain by hanging a bundle of 
rags ; and intimated that their enemies did it, 
kno^ving it would Idc charged on them. The 
Doctor took the matter to heart and resigned 
his place. His people refused to accept the res- 



512 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, iofuation, the matter blew over, and Dr. Scott 
xxxni ° ' . ' . 

_^^_,'vvas spared to enjoy the popularity that one 

1856. earns who buffets a strong tide and emerges 
without damage. 

The great political reform had not 1)een 
achieved without some other social disturb- 
ances. All the passions that are aroused by a 
civil war had been stirred. Bosom friends, and 
brothers in business together, divided and 
avoided each other. A Vigilant met one whom 
he had not seen for several weeks, and extend- 
ed his hand with a friendly salutation. " There's 
blood on it," said the old acquaintance, drawing 
back ; " I don't know you, sir." The papers 
were not remarkably violent, but they were 
very rough in their treatment of men in public 
life. They did not much abuse each other, per- 
haps not more than in an ordinary election 
campaign, when party spirit runs high; but 
they published official records, and raked up 
forgotten facts, and ])lurted out stories which 
they thought they had reason to believe con- 
cerning men in public i^ositions, without the 
sli2:htest reo-ard to the law of libel. 

Allusion was made to the general sympathy 
of the people of the interior of the State with 
the Vigilants. It was manifested by the tone 
of the press ; l3y the loss of subscribers tkat 
some papers suffered because they sj^oke sneer- 
ingly of King, and would not take back their 



SYMPATHT ES" THE INTERTOE. 513 

words ; by tlie closing of stores and the tolling chap. 
of bells at Sacramento, Marysville, Stockton, 
and elsewhere, on the day of King's funeral ; i856. 
and by public meetings at San Jose, Columbia, 
and many other places, which adopted resolu- 
tions approving the committee's decisive action. 
In the mining districts the public sentiment was 
not at all shocked to learn that men in the Bay 
City were taking a short cut to justice — they 
were rather fond of short cuts themselves. 
Down the coast, too, the people were quite re- 
signed, as a random example shall prove : — 
"Within one week four persons were taken out 
of the Monterey jail and hanged. However, 
between an infuriated populace met to lynch a 
heinous transgressor, and a coolly deliberating, 
thoroughly organized Vigilance Committee, 
there was as wide a diiference as between a 
mob and a court. Nothing similar to the San 
Francisco Vigilance Committee was ever organ- 
ized in the interior. 

Hap23y for all that the Presidential election 
was approaching. Its excitement would help 
distract attention from the painful events of 
the i:)ast three months, and give the wounds of 
society opportunity to heal. 

On the 3d of November, the committee, Nov.3. 
ha^ng surrendered the State arms to the au- 
thoi'ities, the Governor withdrew his proclama- 
tion of insurrection, and so the local election 

33 

f 



514 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAR wbicli followed in San Francisco had no cloud 
xxxin.^£ illegality about it. Then, by swift degrees, 

1856. the subject dropped out of the list of topics 
that men much debated. The Democratic State 
Convention, that met in the fall of 1856, was 
expected to glance by resolution at the suli- 
ject, but wiser covmsels prevailed, and no men- 
tion of it was made. In the American State 
Convention a resolution condemnatory of the 
Vigilants was introduced, but instantly tabled 
with hisses. Governor Johnson unl)osomed 
himself to the Legislature in 1857, but most 
that came of it was a controversy between His 
Excellency and General Wool. Governor 
Weller indulg^ed in a flino^ at the committee, 
when in 1855 he wrote his inaugural, but in the 
same connection admitted that the necessities 
of the times demanded something of the sort. 
The Legislature has generally kept their hands 

1856- ^^' only through its relief bills for McGowan, 

1800. Duane, and others, showing that its animus was 
hostile, though policy dictated forgiving and 
forgetting. Occasionally some speaker, young 
to the platform on the Pacific coast, has branch- 
ed off upon the subject, but he seldom has 
found his audience demonstrative about that 
time. The suits for damages that have been 
brought by the returned exiles fill the court- 
rooms with thoughtful, earnestdooking men, 
who say little, and heai* all. 



SUITS BROUGHT AGAINST THE VIGILANTS. 5t5 

The members of the committee were subject- chap. 

XXXIII. 

ed to some annoyances at the East. Several of J_^ , 

them were assaulted in the streets of New York i857- 
by the friends of the banished. Maloney, ^ ' 
Duane, and Mulligan brought suits for damages 
against William T. Coleman, and others of the 
committee, whom they found in New York, but 
the courts denied their jurisdiction, and the 
complainants obtained no satisfaction. In 1859, 1859. 
Martin Galla2:her srot a decree from Judge Hoff- 
man, of the United States District Court in Cali- 
fornia, awarding to him three thousand dollars 
damagjes and costs ag-ainst the master of the 
bark Yankee. The brothers Green brought 
suit separately for damages in the Twelfth Dis- 
trict Court of California. The first case that 
came to trial was that of John L. Green, before 
Judge Norton, in 1860. The complainant al- i860, 
leged fifty thousand dollars damages by the in- 
jury to his own health from imprisonment in 
the committee's jail, and by the death of his 
wife, which, he said, was hastened by the shock 
it gave her. The trial occupied several days, 
and, while it lasted, was the sensation of the 
town. The jury gave a verdict for the plain- 
tiff^, awarding the damages at one hundred and 
fifty dollars, which left the plaintiff to pay his 
own costs, and made it necessary for him to 
pay the jurors' fees. The result was not so 
flattering as to encourage the ])rothers to urge 



516 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, tlieir cases, and they liave not yet been deter- 

XXXIII. . -1 
,^_^ mmeci. 

I860. Duane, returning to the State in 18G0, filed 
libels in the United States District Court 
against Captain Goodall, the master of the 
steam-tug Hercules^ which conveyed him, when 
banished, manacled to the Golden Age^ off the 
mouth of San Francisco harbor; against Cap- 
tain Watkins, of the steamer Age^ which took 
bim to Acapulco ; and against Captain Pear- 
son, of the steamer Joliii L. Stephens^ who, find- 
ing him on board, a stow-away, trying to return 
to San Francisco from Acapulco, transferred 
him \o the steamer Soiiora, bound to Panama, 
The ag-o-reo-ate damasres claimed were one hun- 
dred and twenty-five thousand dollars. In the 
case of Pearson, Judge Hoffman decreed four 

3864 thousand dollars damages in 1864, and Circuit 
Judo-e Field affirmed the decision. The other 

o 

cases were understood to be compromised, at 
rates sufficient to give the returned exile a com- 
fortable living. 

Several of the banished manifested an over- 
weening desire to return to San Frsncisco, as if 
mischief done in any other place lacked its 
relish, and reform nowhere else were half as 
meritorious. Some of them were helped back 
by Vigilants themselves years later, and, while 
some became tolei'ably fair citizens, practising 
their old tricks only ixi primary elections, which 



RETUENING EXILES. 517 

tbe law does not recognize, and wliere conse- chap. 
quently stuffing and colonizing are not misde- 
meanors, except in the moral sense, no one of i8*>4. 
them has so distinguished himself for either pri- 
vate or public virtues, as to start a suspicion. of 
any gross injustice in his sentence. 

By common consent, old San Franciscans 
still avoid discussing: the revolution of 1856 in 
miscellaneous company, as one on which neither 
party has tempered its acerbity, unprofitable, 
and a quarrel-breeder. Occasionally, some one 
in his wrath calls a Vigilant " a strano-ler," and 
the other retorts upon him as one of the " law 
and murder party." It would have seemed 
scarcely time yet to write the history of these 
doings, but that, in the great events that have 
lately convulsed our country, these local matters, 
that used to hold the peaceful, law-abiding 
world breathless, will be forgotten, if the record 
is much longer delayed ; and then, again, a large 
portion of the people now in the State were not 
here in 1856, and they, a sor«t of premature pos- 
terity, have a right to know what was going 
on in the home that was preparing for them, 
before their arrival. 



THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 



CHAPTER XXXiy. 

PRESERVING THE FRUITS OF THE REFORM. 

CHAP. About a week before the Vigilance Commit 

XXXIV ° 



Aug. 



tee disbanded, there was a mass meeting of cit- 
1856. izens in front of the American Exchange in San 
Francisco, to organize a party, irrespective of all 
political leanings, which should rescue the city 
offices from the clutch of irresponsible men, and 
keep unsullied its rights — in short, a People's 
Reform Party. The names of the men who 
figured in it were not those of prominent Vigil- 
ants, though its opponents charge that it was 
the heir of the Vigilance Committee's opinions, 
and was inaugurated, in degree, at least, for 
their protection. 

Ira P. Rankin was called to the chair, a pre- 
vious nominee having been voted down. Mi\ 
Rankin admitted that he was not sure whether 
he was in favor of the objects of the meeting, 
but as it was a people's gathering, he ^vould 
obey theii* orders. A preamble and resolutions 
were introduced. These charged that the po- 
litical parties, as organized, had bred many of 
their troubles. They had tried the American 



THE people's party oeganizatioi^. 519 

party, but discovered in it no higher grade of chap. 
political integrity than in the old parties. Now 
the politicians must stand back; the people i856. 
would attend to their own affairs. With the 
Presidential nominations they had nothing to 
do, with their local affairs every thing. The 
practical proposition of the resolutions was to 
appoint a committee of twenty-one, among 
whom were named J. B. Thomas, E. H. Wash- 
burn, Louis McLean, Frederick Billings, A. B. 
Forbes, and T. O. Larkin, to encourage and 
recommend the election of members of the Leg- 
islature, pledged to reform, and to nominate 
city and county officers. 

If, as was averred, the meeting was packed 
by the Vigilants, it is very curious that it was 
not better managed, for at an early hour it was 
captured by the Republicans, and its object 
almost frustrated. Trenor W. Park opposed 
nominating until the other parties had com- 
pleted their tickets. After his speech, the res- 
olutions were put and lost. William Duer 
essayed to save them, but he had already com- 
mitted himself so openly to the Know Nothings 
that his appeal lost its force. Others spoke, 
but it was wasting words, until E. H. Wash- 
burn took the stand, and, with an address 
which turned the tide of feeling, induced a re- 
consideration, and finally the adoption of the 



520 THE lUSTOllY OF CALLFOKXIA. 

CHAP, policy of the resolutions. The committee of 

XXXIV., , •4-1 

twenty-one was apponited. 

185G. In good time it suLmitted a reform ticket to 
the people for their votes, and on election-day 
it was carried by a large majority. 

The Consolidation Act was now in force in 
San Francisco. It greatly reduced the powers 
of the city legislature, limited the tax that 
might be levied for each specific object, required 
the scrupulous separation of the funds, prohib- 
ited the use of money in one fund for objects 
legitimately covered by another fund, and tied 
the officers down to a very strict accountability. 
This act, devised by Horace Hawes, w^as adopted 
by a Legislature which got little credit for good 
intentions towards the city, but it was an admi- 
rable measure for the thriftless times. It has 
been said, in later days, that to this act rather 
than to the election of the people's tickets is 
due the good order and improved financial con- 
dition of the city. That this was not so is clear 
enough from a solitary consideration : Sacra- 
mento obtained a similar charter for its use, 
but failed to put good men in office, and to 
watch them with all diligence. So, w'hile San 
Francisco from that time prospered in her 
finances, Sacramento dashed on in her old 
career until she stood on the verge of bank- 
ruptcy. 

Nov. The newly-elected city and county officers 



THE EEFORIM CITY GOVERNMENT. 521 

were for tlie most part good men ; and those chap. 
in whom the people afterwards concluded that" 
they were mistaken, they watched so narrowly i856. 
that abuses were infrequent, corruption went 
out of practice, and economy became the rule 
in office. When the gas-bills were complained 
of as unreasonably large, and the gas company 
denied that it could make them less, the re- 
formers brought tallow dips into the super- 
visors' chamber, and transacted business by 
their flickering light. When the district judges 
asked for stoves to warm their court-rooms, 
the supervisors reminded them that, in the fa- 
vored climate of California, stoves were a costly 
luxury, and fuel an unnecessary bill of expense. 
City improvements — the reduction of the streets 
over the irregular surface of the city to the 
official grade — had been the ruin of many who 
unfortunately owned real estate. The new au- 
thorities were, by the new charter and their 
own pledges, required to stop improving, except 
as property-owners petitioned for it. The city 
did not spread itself quite so rapidly as before, 
but bankruptcy was avoided by the delay. It 
was estimated that not less than eio-ht hundred 
persons — the scum of the earth's villany — had 
left the city, and most of them the State, during 
the Vigilance Committee's rule. Kelieved of 
this great burden, the criminal courts travelled 
easily in the road of justice, and rogues found 



522 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, that crime was the swift forerunner of punish- 
XXXIV • • . 

,_^_,' ment. It remains so to this day. The police are 

1856. few in number, but active and vigilant. There 
have, indeed, been some mysterious murders, 
of which the perpetrators were never discov- 
ered ; still, in no other city of its size in the 
Union is there a more cheerful assurance that 
life is safe from violence, and property from 
thieves and robbers. The period was not by 
any means supposed to be within millenuial 
limits, yet the city rapidly became famous for 
its economy, its good order, and its financial 
responsibility. 

The extent of the financial reform will be 
obvious from a few comparisons. The revolu- 
tion occurred in 1856. The year before that, 
things were at the worst. The second year 
after it, the reform was fairly fruit-bearing. 
The city's bills for advertising and stationery, 
in 1855, were $65,231 ; in 1858, $2,727. As- 
sessment expenses, in 1855, were $45,011; in 
1858, $9,100. Election expenses, in 1855, Avere 
$22,920; in 1858, nothing. The fire depart- 
ment, in 1855, cost $263,120; in 1858 it was 
in better condition for $29,972. The hospital 
department, in 1855, cost $278,328; in 1858, 
the sick were better cared for at $43,880. For 
extra legal services, in 1855, the city was taxed 
$31,821 ; in 1858 the amount was a little over 
one-fourth that sum. The police and prisoners 



FINANCES BEFOEE AND AFTEE EEFOKM. 523 

cost the city, in 1855, $236,690; in 1858, chap. 

. XXXIV 

$59,943. The salaries of officers amounted, in <_1.^_' 

1858, to little more tlian one-fourtli as much as 1854- 
in 1855. The annual expenditures of the city 

and county were as follows: In 1854, $1,831,- 
825; in 1855, $2,646,190; in 1856, $856,120; 
in 1857, $353,292; in 1858, $366,427; in 

1859, 480,895; in 1860, $706,719; in 1861, 
$512,896. 

The largest item of expenditure every year, 
with a solitary exception, since 1856, has been 
paid in satisfaction of old debts contracted dur- 
ing the old regime ; and in 1863 nearly one- 
third of all the city taxes went to meet the in- 
terest of these debts. The city has no floating 
debt. Every demand against it is paid upon 
presentation. 

Each successive year, as the municipal elec- 
tion draws nigh, several thousands of the people 
petition the nominating committees of the two 
preceding years to nominate a committee as its 
successor. This new committee pledges its 
members, as its predecessors did, to receive no 
nomination in a given number of years follow- 
ing. This system avoids the primary elections 
of the political parties, where trickery and 
money shape tickets for honest men to indorse 
at the legalized election, and experience seems 
to show it the best that has been devised. The 
nominating committee thus selected, canvasses 



524 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, quietly and secretly the merits of candidates, 
■ and gives the result in a full municipal ticket. 

185a. Except in the case of here and there an indi- 
vidual, these tickets have always been elected. 
The people rule San Francisco, and in conse- 
quence it has abroad, as at home, the reputa- 
tion of being the best-governed city in the 
Union. 



THE STATE CREDIT BRUISED. 525 



CHAPTEK XXXV, 

FINANCIAL BREAKERS. 

But just as the people were beginning to chap. 
manage their own affairs creditably in San _^_] 
Francisco, the financial credit of the State re- 1856. 
ceived a most damaging blow. When the 
interest on the State bonds came due at New 
York, July, 1856, no funds were there to meet 
it. The Treasurer had punctually deposited 
enough with Palmer, Cook & Co. for the 
purpose, and that firm alleged that its agent, 
ex-Congressman Wright, one of the partners, 
had instructions to attend to the punctual pay- 
ment, but he had no money when the fatal day 
arrived, and the State was disgraced. The 
same thing had happened in 1854, when Dun- 
can, Sherman. <fe Co. came to the rescue, and 
saved California's honor; but the Legislature 
allowed Palmer, Cook & Co. to reimburse that 
house months afterwards without interest. Of 
course no one acquainted with that story would 
be in haste to sacrifice himself now. 

The Treasurer scraped together what he could, 
and as soon as he could, and, forwarding it to 



526 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. New York, paid the interest, and the affair re- 
^_^__ ■ doimded more to the discredit of the bankers 
185G- than of the State. But Californians were much 
■ stirred up about it, and demanded that there 
should l)e no more of bankers going between 
them and their creditors — taking their money 
on deposit, with a pledge of expressing it sea- 
sonably, and instead turning it to electioneering 
account. For by this time it was known that 
Palmer, Cook & Co. w^ere Fremont's bankers, as 
well as California's, and it was suspected that 
they were furnishing money for the Presidential 
campaign, with the Mariposa mine as security. 
But the bankers were not alone to blame. 
The Constitution prohibited the creation of a 
debt exceeding three hundred thousand dollars ; 
yet the excess of State expenditures above the 
receipts into the treasury for the year ending 
with June, 185G, was more than douljle that 
amount. By New Year's Day, 1857, the State 
debt was over four million dollars. It had been 
contracted to carry on the legislative, judicial, 
and executive functions of the Government on an 
extravagant scale, for hospital, prison, and 
school purposes, for taking the census of 1852, 
for printing, and for Indian ^\^ar expenses. But 
whatever its object, it was contracted in clear 
violation of the organic law. The Supreme 
Court decided that so much of it as was in ex- 
cess of three hundred thousand dollars was un- 



AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL DEBT. 527 

constitutional and void, and that, though the chap. 
Legislature should tax the people to pay it, that _,^' 
tax would be illegal, and its collection could i856- 
not be enforced. ^ 

Here was a frightful vision of repudiation 
presented to the good people, who gloried in an 
exclusive metallic currency, and that they had 
no bill-emitting banks. Now they began to 
doubt if they had not been too fast in rushing 
into the responsibilities of a State. Except 
Texas, all the other Western States had been 
kept a while in Territorial leading-strings, and 
during their patient waiting had their expenses 
paid out of the national treasury. California 
had set up housekeeping without a dollar to 
buy furniture, pay rent, or hire service with. 
To run the State at the start, she issued bonds, 
bearing interest at three ^er cent, a month. 
When she redeemed them in 1856, the interest 
had far outgrown the principal. Had not the 
Constitution provided too much government 
machinery for the little governing that was 
wanted ? — too grand an engine for a craft that 
had but a handful of a crew to man it ? Too 
many officers, too high salaries, exorbitant fees, 
extravagant jobs ; too frequent and too long leg- 
islative sessions; swarms about the treasury, 
clamoring that party services gave them a right 
to live off the State — these were suckins: the life 
out of the commonwealth. The people suspected 



528 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, tliat they had been too ambitious; that they 
,_^^ would better liave waited a while in Territorial 
1856- pupilage. 
^ ■ But regrets were in vain. Besides, it had 
never been a question of admission as a State 
or remaining a Territory. Congress refused 
California any kind of government ; it was a 
choice between a State oro-anization or nothins;. 
Indeed, if they had another commonwealth to 
found ifnder similar circumstances, they would 
do the job in the same way. They would pre- 
fer a State's dignity to a Territory's economy 
and thrift — genteel sovereignty rather than full- 
fed dependence — officers of their choice, bad as 
they might be, rather than those of other men's 
appointment. Certainly the love of the Union 
was strengthened by early admission into it ; 
and whatever California may have lost in 
money by her haste, she gained in patriotism. 
As to the Union, none could doubt that it lost 
nothing and made much by California's early 
welcome to all its honors. 

The Supreme Court had indicated a solitary 
way for the State's escape from the disgrace of 
repudiation. That was for the question of as- 
suming the unconstitutional debt to be sub- 
mitted to the people. The Legislature quickly 
passed an act of submission, and the people, by 
overwhelming numl:>ers, voted to pay every 
dollar of the debt. But it was one thing cheer- 



THE DEBT ASSUMED BY THE PEOPLE. 529 

fully to assume the debt illegally contracted by chap. 
careless servants, and anotlier to pay it. — v—' 

Governor Johnson zealously urged retrench- i85G- 
ment, and the Legislature vigorously essayed re- ^^^^' 
form. Year by year, hoping to abolish the scrip 
system, the debt had been funded at seven per 
cent, annual interest. Still, there was a great 
deal of scrip afloat, some of which, being unsup- 
ported by any satisfactory vouchers, v^as re- 
fused payment. A board of examiners was 
created, to pass upon all claims and comptrol- 
ler's warrants required, where the cash could 
not be paid for authorized expenditures. The 
Governor made one more effort to induce Con- 
gress to restore the "civil fund" to the State, 
but it was vain. The Su23reme Court of the 
United Statefe had decided the action of the 
Federal authorities in collecting customs after 
the cession of California as a conquered prov- 
ince of Mexico, and while it was under the 
sway of military officers, though in a time of 
peace, warrantable and right; so that long- 
cherished resource for extinguishing the debt 
was abandoned. The appropriation by Con- 
gress towards meeting the Indian war debt was 
ample to have covered the whole claim ; but 
Jefferson Davi,s, Secretary of War, refused to 
transfer the money called for by the appropria- 
tion, and required the production of original 
accounts and vouchers, many of which were 

34 



530 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP. lost. Under this delay the debt grew by the 

■^__^_," accumulation of interest, and the State was at 

1856- some expense to obtain an additional appro- 

^^^^' priation. The effort was fruitless, and there 

was nothing better than to divide what had 

been appropriated, so far as it would go among 

the claimants. 

Free, fearless taxation was resorted to as the 
only means left to reduce the debt, but expen- 
ditures, after all the legislative pruning, were 
enormous. It was hard to conquer the extrav- 
agant habits of early days. Governor Downey 
estimated the local indebtedness of the cities 
and counties, on the iirst of January, 1861, at 
near ten million dollars; and Governor Stan- 
ford quoted the State debt in the beginning of, 
18G3 at over five and a half millions. 

For neither the local nor the State debts was 
there much to show ; a few court-houses and 
jails, a few public halls, a State-prison at San 
Quentin inadequate to its purj^ose, an insane 
asylum at Stockton, not half large enough for 
the number of its inmates, the foundations of a 
capitol at Sacramento, a small State library, 
richest in law boohs, a reform-school building 
at Marysville, with a handful of boys in its 
echoinsc halls— one Avondei's where the millions 
of borrowed money went. Salaries, fees, inter- 
est consumed a large share of it ; some chari- 
table institution^, mainly maintained by the 



THE DEBT ASSUMED BY THE PEOPLE. 531 

contributions of cliurches and individuals, en- chap. 
joyed a meagre portion; peace with Indians ^__^ 
cost something ahnost every year, and the pets ises. 
of party and the sharpers of the lobby took 
toll of all they could reach. 

The resources of the State are so abundant, 1865. 
the prosperity of the inhabitants so general, 
that the debt does not much trouble the people 
now. Its interest is met with punctuality. 
The bonds of the State and of most of the cities 
stand well in the market, and our general credit 
is excellent at home and abroad. 

But the debt rather waxes than wanes, and 
there is no such wholesome impatience to be 
rid of it as a proper regard to economy would 
require. During the war of the rebellion, a 
new source of indebtedness was necessarily 
created. Bounties to soldiers, arming and 
drilling the militia, all means of defence against 
foreign foes or traitors at home, were welcomed 
by those who most cherished thrift. Yet each 
new outlay demanded sharper watch that none 
be wasted, closer scrutiny that disbursing 
agents make no illegal commissions. 



532 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

LAND TITLES. 

CHAP. It is scarcely possible to overstate the annoy- 

XXXVI 

^^^,w ances that Californians have suffered iu the 
1850- past from the uncertainty of land titles. Be- 
fore the country came into the possession of 
the United States a very considerable ];)ortion 
of the best lands for agricultural purposes, and 
of the region about the bays, including the 
natural sites for many future cities, had been 
granted to individuals by the Mexican author- 
ities. They valued their gifts very cheaply, 
because there were few competitors, and 
bounded them most loosely. The grant might 
convey a definite number of square leagues 
within a certain valley, or inside the exterior 
limits of a named rancho, leaving the graotee to 
locate his tract anywhere within those limits. 
As little accurate surveying was done and lit- 
tle attention i^aid to topography, grants often 
oveilappcd and encroached upon each other, 
and sometimes a person was given all the 
gores, corners, and odd pieces of some favorite 
tract, not appropriated by grants of earlier 



CONFLICTING LAND CLAIMS. 533 

date. Tbougli tbei-e had been never a fraudu- chap. 
lent claim for a rood of ground, tlie lax method ^-^^^^ 
of Mexican conveyancing would have insured 
a rich harvest of litigation, for, by the treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the American Govern- 
ment agreed not to disturb existing titles, and 
to respect all grants derived through the Mexi- 
can or Spanish authorities. 

The gold discovery opened tlie gates to a 
flood of population which must have homes of 
some sort, and laud to build their homes on. 
When the new-comers asked who owned the 
soil, they were distracted with the variety of 
answers. One authority named a distant ranch- 
man as the proprietor. Another pointed out 
the man whose cattle ransjed over it. Another 
quoted a clamorous claimant, but admitted that 
his title was generally supposed to be fraudu- 
lent — for, as lauds came into demand, there 
sprang up a populous tribe of claimants, with 
manufEXctured papers sufficiently resembling the 
genuine in the breadth of boundaries and un- 
certainty of extent and location called for, and, 
perhaps, more careful than they to bear abun- 
dance of seals and sis-natures. 

Most of the American settlers bouirht the 
lots they coveted of the claimant presumed to 
have the best title ; others were satisfied to 
buy the cheapest, and still others put up their 
fences and cabins as if settling on Government 



534 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, land, asking no one's permission, confident that 
■ possession and a rifle would give them as good 

1851. a chance as was to be bought. They were not 
at liberty to wait for conflicting claims to be 
adjudicated, for the homeless must have shel- 
ter, the markets must be supplied with vege- 
tables and grain, and there was no movement 
to determine by law who owned the land, until 
busy cities replaced the drowsy solitude of the 
coast, and a vigorous American State was im- 
proving the premises that so long lay waste as 
a sleepy province of Mexico. 

In 1851, three years after the treaty of peace 

1851- was sio;ned, Con<};ress enacted a law for the 

1856 o ' D 

settlement of land claims in California — it 
might with propriety have been entitled an act 
to retard their settlement. Colonel Benton in- 
sisted that patents ouglit to issue to all lands 
whose titles should be found perfect and fairly 
recorded at Mexico ; but he was overi'uled, and 
a commission was created to sit in San Fran- 
cisco, and decide the validity of claims accord- 
ing to the usages, laws, and customs of the 
Government from which the titles were de- 
rived. 

Before this Board of Land Commissioners all 
claimants under Spanish or Mexican grants 
must present their evidences of title within two 
years of the date of the passage of the act, or 
the land would be deemed part of the domain 



THE LAND COMMISSIONEES. 535 

of the United States. Tlie board must decide oiiap. 
upon the validity of the claim within thirty ,1^^_' 
days after its presentation. The claimant, or 185G. 
the district attorney, could appeal from the 
board's decision to the United States District 
Court, and from that to the Federal Supreme 
Court. When a claim was finally confirmed, 
unless other claimants intervened, a patent for 
the land was to issue, and the surveyor-gene».*al 
was to " locate " it. From his survey the appeal 
was to the Department of the Interior, at 
Washington. 

For commissioners, President Fillmore ap- 
pointed Harry L. Thornton, Augustus Thomp- 
son, and Alpheus L. Felch. His Democratic 
successor thrust them out, and appointed others 
in their places. 

As neither commissioners nor counsel were 
familiar with Mexican law and practice, tedious 
delays and grave blunders were unavoidable. 
The board, before its final adjournment, March, 
1856, to which time the amended law extended 
its existence, had some eight hundred claims 
presented. More than half of them it con- 
firmed ; some, for obvious fraud, it rejected, and 
some for gross informalities ; while some, be- 
cause they called for land, afterwards granted in 
a hirge tract to the same parties, were with- 
drawn. 

The area of land called for by the claims pre- 



5S6 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, sented was nineteen thousand one hundred and 

XXXVI 

,^_,^^__,' forty-eight square miles. Many of the rejected 
1856, claims were allowed, and confirmed in the dis- 
tiict courts, which also finally rejected some 
very important ones that the board confirmed. 
The labor is by no means ended yet. Some 
stubborn cases are still pending in the district 
courts; the Supreme Court of the United States 
has its docket still burdened with appeals, and 
Congress at every session is invoked for special 
enactments to relieve sojue party who suffers 
by virtue of a decision that the testimony made 
inevitable. 

Indeed, it is scarcely possible that every final 
decision should not work a hardship to some- 
body. Every genuine claim that is confirmed 
requires a large body of squatters and holders 
under adverse titles to l^e ousted. Seldom can 
a survey be approved for a claim whose gen- 
uineness is no surprise, without forfeiting some 
honest settler's improvements. It was a griev- 
ance loudly complained of, that an appeal from 
the survey made necessary a journey to Wash- 
ington to watch proceedings under a subordi- 
nate of the Land Ofiice, and many a disap- 
pointed claimant has come home, alleging that 
the party which accommodated the clerk with 
the lar2:est loan won the decision. 

Few of the original grantees have found their 
fortune in the grants that seemed princely to 



JUDGE black's sensation LETTER. 537 

the landless. Though tlieir claims were con- chap. 

• • XXXVI 

filmed, they were generally fought with ruinous J.^^_, 
obstinacy. Enormous counsel fees, huge bills issG. 
of cost, money hired at frightful interest, and its 
payment secured by mortgage upon mortgage, 
have compelled many an original grantee to 
lament the day that he asked for a grant, and 
when his patent has come, it was not for him, 
l3ut for his lawyers. Some relief was afforded 
when the Supreme Court, in 1858, decided that 1858. 
the district courts had power to supervise the 
surveys, and so spare the trip to Washington. 
Congress bas tried to relieve sufferers by open- 
ing cases once closed, but every such opening 
has involved another set of claimants in litiga- 
tion. 

. President Buchanan, in 1860, sent a message i860. 
to the House of Hepresentatives, accompanied 
by some correspondence concerning this sub- 
ject, that caused a sensation. Appropriations? 
amounting to $114,000, had been made by the 
Thirty-fourth and Tliii'ty-fi.ftli Congresses for 
legal assistance, and other expenditures, in the 
disposal of private land claims in California. 
The House of the Thirty-sixth Congress asked 
for a detailed statement of these expenditures, 
and Mr. Buchanan furnished it. 

Judge Black, of Pennsylvania, was Attorney- 
General. His letters said it was incredible that 
80 many grants could have been made in good 



538 THE mSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

OHAP. faith by any Government as were claimed in 

XXXVI . ' . 

^_^__,' California, under titles, real or fabricated, from 
I860. Governors Alvarado, Micheltorena, or Pio Pico. 
They covered a very large portion of the best 
mineral and ao:ricultural reo^ions. There seem- 
ed to be not an island or place for a fort, a 
custom-house, hospital, or post-office but must 
be purchased on his own tei'ms from some pri- 
vate claimant. But they were supported by an 
array of testimony that had already secured 
their confirmation by the Land Commissioners 
and the district courts, and rendered defence 
liopeless unless extraordinary means for inves- 
tigation were resorted to. The examination of 
records in the city of Mexico, "led to the con- 
clusion that even the archives of that Govern- 
ment had, in some way, become an instrument 
of sanctionino^ frauds ao-ainst the United States." 
In February, 1858, Edwin M. Stanton (since 
United States Secretary of War) was sent to 
San Francisco as special counsel for the Govern- 
ment in pending cases, and especially charged 
to resist the Limantour claim. The scattered 
archives of the Mexican Government were 
hunted out of their careless concealment, 
whether in public offices or in the keej^ing of 
ex-officials, and dej^osited with the Surveyor- 
General. Official coi'i'espondence, seals, and 
suspicious grants were copied photographically, 
and important documents translated for the use 



FRAUDULENT LAND CLAIMS. 539 

of the court at Washington. Irresistible proof chap. 
was obtained " that there had been an organ- ^,.^^_* 
ized system of fabricating land titles carried on i860. 
for a long time in California by Mexican offi- 
cials; that forgery and perjury had been re- 
duced to a regular occupation ; that the making 
of false grants, with the subornation of false 
witnesses to prove them, had become a trade 
and a business." " The richest part of San 
Francisco was found to be covered by no less 
than live different grants, every one of them 
forged after the conquest : Sacramento, Marys- 
ville, Stockton, and Petaluma were claimed on 
titles no better." The value of the lands 
claimed under fraudulent titles was estimated 
at not less than one hundred and fifty million 
dollars! More than two-thirds of them (in 
value) had already been exposed and defeated. 
He enumerated some of the cases disposed 
of in favor of the Grovernment. Prominent in 
the list was Limantour's claim for two square 
leagues of San Francisco land, and for Alcatras, 
the Farallones, and Fort Point, Mr. Stanton, 
before the District Court, produced overwhelm- 
ing proofs of its fraud. Its rejection by Judge 
Hoffman has already been noticed. Limantour 
was prosecuted for forgery and setting up a 
claim known to be false. He gave bail in the 
sum of thirty-five thousand dollars for his ap- 
pearance, and left the country. To this day his 



540 THE HISTO*RY OF CALIFOKNIA. 

CHAP, sureties have not paid the forfeited bonds. 
_^_,' Captain Sutter, under two grants, claimed thir- 
1800. ty-iive square leagues in the Sacramento Valley. 
One of them, made by Alvarado, in 1841, for 
eleven leagues, was genuine. The other, pro- 
fessing to be from Mieheltorena, for twenty-two 
leagues, covering the sites of Sacramento and 
Marysville, and embracing portions of five 
counties, was shown to have been made, if by 
Mieheltorena at all, after a successful revolution 
had expelled bim from his capital. The Su- 
preme Court rejected it. In this case, as in many 
others, not the slightest suspicion was cast on the 
claimant who held in good faith, and in perfect 
honesty conveyed large tracts covered by his 
title to third parties. Nye's claim to four 
leagues on the Sacramento was a sample of 
claims under the general permission granted by 
Mieheltorena, after his expulsion from office, to 
Sutter to issue certificates of title to persons who 
bad previously petitioned for land. The SujDreme 
Court treated the general title as a nullity. The 
claim of Fuentes, a young nephew of Mieheltore- 
na, for eleven leagues near the Mission of San 
Jose, was rejected when the Sujireme Court was 
shown that, though it was dated at Monterey, 
1843, the Governor whose signature was at- 
tached had never at that time been to Monterey. 
The claim of the two brothers of General Valle- 
jo, better known as the Teschemacher claim, for 



FRAUDULENT LAND CLAIMS. 541 

sixteen leasrues, was reiected as spurious. The chap. 

. . . . X-KXVI 

claim of Santillan, a priest at tlie Mission Dolo- _^_^* 
res, to the site of San Francisco, purported to i860. 
be derived from a grant by Pio Pico in 1846. 
It was prosecuted in the name of James R. 
Bolton, and held by Palmer, Cook & Co. and 
a Philadelphia company, when the Supreme 
Court, to the great jo}^ of San Franciscans, re- 
versed the judgment of the commissioners and 
the District Court, and rejected it. Other 
claims of less note and value it rejected, some 
for lack of proof of their genuineness, some for 
clearly discovered though adroitly perpetrated 
fraud. 

The Attorney-General's figures, as quoted 
above, especially his estimate of the value of the 
land saved from the operation of spurious titles, 
were recklessly extravagant; but though he 
wrote as an attorney, and not as a judge, even 
he does not picture too vividly the audacity 
and gigantic proportions of the frauds at- 
tempted. 

The chaotic confusion concerning land titles 
in California that prevailed a few years ago can 
never again return. Most of the important claims 
have been determined by the highest judicial 
authorities, and Congress grows less and less dis- 
posed to reopen cases adjudicated, or by enact- 
ment to disturb what is apparently firm. Most 
that now remains is to settle and aj)poiut the 



542 THE HISTOEY OF OALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, boundaries of grants confirmed. A man may at 
"last buy a homestead lot in the city, or a farm 

I860, in the country, with some comfortaljle assurance 
that, if he has the j^roper searches for title made, 
he is not simply purchasing a lawsuit. 



THE STATE PKISON. 543 



1864. 



CHAPTER XXXVn. 

BITTER PARTY STRIFES. 

Within the eight years after the Vigilance chap. 
revolution, California enjoyed or suffered 'the ■^"^^^^^' 
control of four different political parties : tlje isse- 
Know Nothing, Democi'atic, Republican, and 
Union. The Know Nothing, or American, as 
it called itself, rode into power on the wave of 
reform. Governor Johnson kept faith with the 
reformers, and under his spur the Legislature 
did really apply the pruning-knife to govern- 
mental expenses with effect. But his adminis- 
tration committed an eo;reo:ious blunder in the 
matter of the State Prison. 

In 1851, by an unfortunate contract for a 
term of ten years, that institution was turned 
over to the control of James M. Estill. There 
were so many abuses, so many escapes of pris- 
oners, sometimes encouraged if not even planned 
by the keepers, so much and such well-grounded 
complaint, that the Legislature declared the 
lease forfeited, and the State officers resumed 
its management. They erected a wall twenty 
feet high about the premises at San Queutin, 



544 THE HISTORY OF CALTTORinA. 

CHAP, enclosing a square of five hundred feet on eacli 
■ side, and initiated many reforms. 

1856. Still the concern did not prosper, and the 
Legislature of 1856, doubtless thinking it wise 
economy, made a new lease of the prison build- 
ings and labor to the same Estill, he engaging 
to maintain and keep safely the convicts, and 
the State to pay him ten thousand dollars a 
year for five years. Very soon he assigned the 
lea^e to one McCauley at half the agreed rate 
of compensation. The abuses now were worse 
than ever. Prisoners were maltreated and con- 
tinually escaping. 

The Legislature again declared the lease for- 
feited, and Governer Weller, in the spring of 
1858, took forcible possession of the property, 
and gave the keys to a new warden. The as- 
signee prosecuted for his rights and for dam- 
ages, and the Supreme Court sustained him. 
A compromise was effected, but its terms were 
not punctually met on the part of the State. 
Finally, a bonus was paid the assignee in Gov- 
ernor Downey's day, and, though there have 
been several wholesale escapes, the manage- 
ment has improved ever since, and, but for the 
lack of room to classify prisoners and keep the 
adepts in crime separate from mere novices, it 
is in tolerable condition. 

1857. The Administration suffered also from the 
scandal of a defalcation by one of its principal 



A DEFALCATING OFFICER. 545 

officers. There was suddenly missiusj from tlie chap 

XXXVII 

treasury some one hundred and forty thousand >_^_ ' 
dollars. Dr. Bates, the Treasurer, pretended 1857. 
that it was set aside to pay the interest on the 
debt, but all he could show for it was a penal 
bond of the Pacific Express Company, engaging 
to j)ay one hundred and twenty-four thousand 
dollars into the treasury in default of the pay- 
ment of the interest due in New York in July. 
Bates was impeached, convicted, and declared 
by the Senate disqualified to hold office. He 
was indicted, too, for embezzlement, stood two 
or three trials, but by virtue of a change of 
venue, was finally acquitted. His sureties were 
prosecuted, and judgment recovered against 
them, but they proved insolvent, and the State 
abandoned the claim. 

Know Nothingism was a temporary expedi- 
ent, and short-lived. Here, as elsewhere, it 
died before the term of its first victors exj^ired. 
Johnson sent his second annual message (1857) 
to a Legislature which on joint ballot had forty- 
six Democratic majority. 

As Gwin's seat in the United States Senate 
had been vacant nearly two years, and Weller's 
was just about to be, there should l^e no diffi- 
culty, if the two factions would be satisfied each 
with an abundant j^rize. Broderick was king 
of caucus that year. On the 10th of January Jan.io. 
(1857), in joint convention, he had seventy- 

35 



546 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEIN^IA. 

CHAP, nine votes, E. C. Stanley fourteen, and J. W. 
^_^ ■ Coffroth seventeen, on tlie first ballot, and Brod- 
1857. erick was declared elected United States Sena- 
tor, to fill the place that Weller would vacate 
in March. 

But who should be his colleague ? who oc- 
cupy for four years Gwin's long-vacant se^at? 
Broderick wanted Judge McCorkle, but caucus, 
^ rebelling, refused him, Gwin, Broderick's bit- 
ter enemy, bade high for it. Milton S. Latham 
wanted it, who, as member of Congress, and es- 
pecially as Collector of the Port of San Fran- 
cisco, had earned a fair reputation. Both paid 
court to Broderick, for the decision lay with 
him. Gwin professed great disgust of Federal 
patronage ; meddling with it had caused all his 
woes ; men whom he helped to office were work- 
ing for Latham ; he would be glad to give up 
all pretensions to any claim in the appoint- 
ments. But Broderick distrusted him. La- 
tham, with reservations about two or three 
trivial places, had assured Broderick's friends 
that they should have his aid to obtain what- 
ever they wanted, and it was understood that 
Latham was to be the lucky man. 

Suddenly Frank Tilford, candidate for the 
San Francisco collectorship, told Broderick that 
he missed a letter from his desk in which La- 
tham had pledged his support of him for the 
position; he suspected that Latham had sur- 



BRODERICK MAKES A COLLEAGUE FOR THE SENATE. 547 

reptitiously regained possession of it. On this, chap, 
Brodei'ick professed that all faith in Latham l.i^_ ' 
deserted him, and he ordered caucus to give its 1S57. 
vote for Gwin. 

When Broderick told this story on the stump 
two years afterwards, Latham indignantly de- 
nied the petty larceny, and Tilford in writing 
indorsed the denial, saying that he found the 
letter next morning, on closer search, where he 
left it. 

Latham's version of his defeat was this: Jan. 13. 
Broderick sent for him to visit him at the 
"Magnolia," in Sacramento. He declined to 
go to his room, but consented to meet him at 
David Mahoney's room, in the same house. So 
at night, l:)etween eleven and a half and two 
o'clock, the Senator elect, and the young aspi- 
rant for senatorial honors, met. Broderick told 
Latham he would make him Senator if he would 
write a full relinquishment of all his claims 
upon the Federal patronage. Latham answered 
that he should lose his selfrespect if he did it, 
and declined. Upon that they separated, but 
Estill, of infragrant State Prison memory, es- 
sayed to compromise their differences. Finally, 
Latham consented that if Estill would write, he 
would sign the required relinquishment, except 
as to three persons and places. Broderick's ul- 
timatum was an unconditional surrender, which 
Latham refused. 



048 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

OHAP. Caucus obeyed orders promptly. At its next 

XXXTII • J. J. ./ 

_^^_, ■ session, on the fourteentli ballot, Gwin received 
1857. forty-seven votes (seven more than was neces- 
sary to a choice), Latham but twenty-six. On 
the 13th of January, the Legislative Joint Con- 
vention met again, when the first ballot stood : 
Gwin, eighty-one ; H. A. Crabb, seventeen ; A. 
M. Sargent, eleven ; E. C. Stanley, one; O. L. 
Sbafter, one ; so Gwin was at last elected his 
own successor, to serve four years. 

As if to convince even the simplest that it 
was not Broderich's magnanimity, but a most 
corrupt and disgraceful bargain that restored 
Gwin to the Senate, there ap]3eared in print, a 
day or two later, an astounding " Letter to the 
People," bearing even date with his election, 
and sio'ned with Gwin's name. In it occurred 
the following remarkable sentences : " A rep- 
resentative whose evil destiny itis.tobethe 
indirect dispenser of Federal patronage, will 
strangely miscalculate if he expects to evade 
the malice of disappointed men. To the Federal 
patronage in the State do I attribute, in a great 
degree, the malice and hostile energy which, 
after years of faithful service, have nearly cost 
me the indorsement of a re-election to the United 
States Senate. From patronage, then, and the 
curse it entails, I shall gladly in future turn, 
and my sole lal^or and ambition shall be to 
deserve well of the State, and to justify the 



GWIN CONFESSES HIS INDEBTEDNESS. 549 

cLoice of the Legislature in lionorinar me a chap. 

• • • XXXVII 

second time as a representative of its interests. ' 
* * * * I have hinted at aid other than i857. 
that received from those whom I re2:arded as 
friends, I refer to the timely assistance accord- 
ed to me by Mr. Broderick and his friends. 
Although at one time a rival, and recognizing 
in him a fierce ])ut manly opponent, I do not 
hesitate to acknowledge, in this public manner, 
his forgetfulness of all grounds of dissension 
and hostility, in what he conceives to be a step 
necessary to allay the strifes and discords which 
had distracted the party and the State. To 
him I conceive, in a great degree, my election is 
due ; and I feel bound to him and them in com- 
mon efforts to unite and heal, where the result 
heretofore has been to break down and de- 
stroy." 

That spring, there was a grand hegira of the 
politicians to Washington, to secure the spoils 
that Buchanan had to distribute. But at the 
national capital Broderick's rod had no magic 
power, while Gwin's open house and profuse 
hospitality, and Mrs. Grwin's fancy balls and 
gay receptions, had all the effect that such 
things aim to produce on impressible senators 
and cabinet officers. Though Gwin may have 
kept the promise of his lettei-, the choicest of 
the Federal patronage for California came out 
with the senior Senator's brand upon it. Wash- 



550 THE HISTORY OF CALITOElSriA. 

CHiVP. ins^ton, whom Broderick did not love, was 2:iven 
_^_ ■ the collectorship at San Francisco. Bigler was 

1857. exiled with a mission to Chili. 

At home, in the fall, Broderick tried to get 
McCorkle nominated for Governor on an Anti- 
Lecompton platform, but failed. Weller re- 
ceived the nomination, and was elected by the 
undivided Democracy over Edward Stanley, 
the candidate of the Whigs. 

The Legislature chosen that fall was largely 

1858. Democratic. Meeting in 1858, it adopted a 
resolution iudoreing the President's Kansas 
policy, and instructing the State's senators to 
vote accordingly. 

There was occasion this year to try the virtue 
of the Fugitive Slave Law, one of the series of 
Compromise Acts of 1850. A Mr. Stovall, from 
Mississippi, came into the State with his slave, 
Archy, in the summer of 1857. Though he pro- 
fessed that he did not intend to stay long^ he 
so far settled as to engage for a w^hile as teacher 
of a private school in Sacramento. In Janu- 
ary, he prepared to send the slave South again, 
when suddenly Archy assumed his liberty, and 
declined to go. Stovall had the boy arrested ; 
but the friends of the alleged slave sued out a 
writ of habeas corpus^ under which he was dis- 
charp:ed, on the oTound that Stovall was not a 
traveller, and Archy not a fugitive, under the 
act of 1850. Instantly that he was discharged, 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE ACT. 551 

lie was rearrested, and his case hastened up to chap. 
the Supreme Court, where Chief-Justice Bur- 11^_' 
nett gave the law to the negro, and, Terry con- 1858. 
curring, the negro to his claimant. Stovall now 
brought his chattel to San Francisco, and took 
the steamer for home ; but when off the Heads, 
both were arrested and brought back — the for- 
mer on a charge of kidnapping ; the latter by 
writ of habeas corpus. The U. S. Commissioner, 
George Pen Johnston, though a man of strong 
Southern sympathies, heard the case, when it 
came up before him, with impartiality. Colonel 
Baker befriended Archy; J. A. Hardy (who 
was impeached, in 1862, for using treasonable 
language) pleaded tlie cause of Stovall. After 
an exciting trial, in course of vdiich counsel came 
once to the verge of a physical collision, and the 
blacks in town were very much stirred up, the 
negro was set free. 

The second Legislature during Weller's gu- 1^59. 
bernatorial term was more than simply Demo- 
cratic ; it was chivalric and very "high-toned" 
on the Lecompton question. By resolution it 
denounced a speech made by Broderick in the 
Senate — in which he had spoken with great 
freedom of the Executive — as insultine: to the 
nation and humiliating to the people. 

So soon as Congress adjourned the two sena- 
tors came home to have the fi2:ht over asrain, on 
the soil native to it. Gwin brought with him 



552 THE IIISTOEY OF CALtFORNIA. 

CHAP, tlie efood wishes of the Administration ; Brod- 

XXXVII « 

" _^_ ' erick the sympathies of the Douglas Democrats 
1859. and the Eepablicans, who had fraternized on 
many matters, though maintaining distinctly 
party lines. In Administrative circles, Weller 
was the candidate of the ultra Southern men, 
Latham of the Conservatives, and in Conven- 
tion Latham won the nomination for Governor, 
For Congressmen, Burch and Scott were nomi- 
nated by the same convention. The anti-Le- 
compton Convention nominated John Curry for 
Governor, and Joseph C. McKibben and S. A. 
Booker for Congress. The Republicans nomi- 
nated Leland Stanford for Governor, and Colo- 
nel E. H. Baker and P. H. Sibley for Congress. 
Here there was am2:)le occasion for the hostile 
senators to get a verdict, principle enough in- 
volved in the contest to dignify it, personal ani- 
mosity enough to make sure that each would 
struggle to the extent of his power for victory. 
Gwin had on his side the patronage of the Gov- 
ernment, the custom-house, the post-ofiice, the 
mint, each of which had a long list of employes, 
and a list ten times longer of expectants of 
places there. Besides, he had the odor of regu- 
larity, so dear to Democrats. Broderick had 
the sympathies of the Republicans, but their 
votes were thought to he mortgaged to candi- 
dates of their own. As Avas the Democratic 
custom, the candidates went into the outskirts, 



BEODERICK DECLINES PEELEY's CHALLENGE. 553 

avoidins: San Francisco, and even Sacramento, as chap. 
long as possible, evidently dreading the phonog- _^^_, " 
rapliers and the 2:)ress of the chief cities. 1859. 

But at the very opening of the campaign, an ""^^ ' 
affair occurred which was augury of a bitter 
strife coming. Judge Terry was a defeated can- 
didate Ijefore the Lecompton Convention for a 
renomiuation to the supreme bench. In a 
speech professing resignation to the will of the 
majority, he said some harsh things of Broder- 
ick, intimating that while it was true enough 
that he rallied to the call of a Douglas, it was 
not of Stephen A., but of Frederick Douglass, 
the eloquent mulatto. Broderick read the re- 
port of this speech at the breakfast-table of the 
International Hotel in San Francisco, and as he 
laid aside the paper uttered some remark not 
complimentary to Terry. D. W. Perley heard 
the remark, and replied to it. Broderick re- 
torted. Perley, seeing there were ladies at the 
table, withdrew, and soon after sent a hostile 
message to Broderick by the hands of S. H. 
Brooks, Lecompton candidate for State Comp- 
troller. E. J. C. Kewen, arriving the same 
night, relieved Brooks, and himself took on the 
part of Perley's friend. Broderick, because 
there was some informality about it, chose to 
send his reply — it was dated Jmie 29th, 1859 — 
to Perley direct. He said the publicity given 
to the affair put it out of his power to afford 



554 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORA^IA. 

CHAP, the satisfaction demanded. He had told bim 

, , in the presence of gentlemen, at the time of the 

1859. alleged insult, that he would not accept a chal- 
lenge from him, who, within a few days, had 
made oath that he was a subject of Great Brit- 
ain, and, consequently, had no political rights 
to be affected by giving or receiving a chal- 
lenge. "For many years," wrote Broderick, 
" and up to the time of my elevation to the posi- 
tion I now occupy, it was well known that I 
w^ould not have avoided any issue of the char- 
acter proposed. If compelled to accept a chal- 
lenge, it could only be with a gentleman holding 
a position equally elevated and responsible, and 
there are no circumstances which could induce 
me even to do thus during the pendency of the 
present canvass. When I authorized the an- 
nouncement that I w^ould address the people of 
California during the campaign, it was suggest- 
ed that efforts would be made to force me into 
difficulties, and I determined to take no notice 
of attacks from any source during the canvass. 
If I were to accept your challenge, there are prob- 
ably many other gentlemen who would seek 
similar opportunities for hostile meetings, for 
the purpose of accomplishing a political object, 
or to obtain public notoriety. I cannot affoi'd, 
at the j)resenl time, to descend to a violation 
of the Constitution and the State laws to 
subserve either their or your purposes." 



BRODEEICK ON THE STUMP. 555 

Perley then issued a card to tlie public, chap. 
pronouncing Broderick's letter a tissue of false- J__^_, ' 
hoods, a mean, quibbling, dastardly evasion, is59. 
and expressing the opinion that Broderick was 
as devoid of courage as of principle, and had no 
longer any right to call himself a gentleman. 

Broderick made his first stump speech at 
Placerville, July 9th. He recited the points of July, 
his career in California. He was elected to the 
first Senate of the State, and in 1851 re-elected 
for two years, and chosen by that body to pre- 
side over it, when the Lieutenant-Governor, 
McDougall, was called to fill the chair of Gov- 
ernor, made vacant by Burnett's resignation. 
In 1852 and 1853 he was chairman of the State 
Central Committee. In 1852 he was a candi- 
date for the United States Senate, but caucus 
preferred the claims of Weller. In 1854 he 
was again a candidate, and caucus gave him 
the nomination, but a combination of Ameri- 
cans, Old Line "Whigs, and Federal ofiice- 
holders defeated him. He protested that " no 
thieving bill, or corruj^t measure, designed to 
rob the treasury, ever received support or coun- 
tenance" from him. 

Said he, " I have lived among you for more 
than ten years. From the commencement, and 
during the period when the gross vices of pub- 
lic men were winked at or forgotten, on account 
of the general laxity of morals that prevailed 



556 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CEAP. in society unleavened by the presence of 
'virtuous woman, no man, living or dead, ever 
1859. saw me at a gaming-table, or in a brothel, or 
under the influence of liquors, or ever knew me 
to refuse to pay an honest debt. No one ever 
dared to charge me with being influenced by 
pecuniary considerations in any vote which I 
gave." He had been told that the San Fran- 
cisco Vigilance Committee undertook to inves- 
tigate his history. The principles of that 
organization he did not approve ; he had no 
sympathy with them ; but many men in it had 
since become friendly. He had sought to reduce 
the salaries of Federal oflicers in California. He 
claimed credit for defeatiuo; the Lime Point 
swindle ; read letters from Governor Weller, 
urging the purchase of the Point at three hun- 
dred thousand dollars ; produced the evidence 
of a clerk in the Treasury Department, describ- 
ing that precipitous rock at the door of the 
ocean, as a property valuable for warehouses, 
and eligible for villas and suburban residences, 
and stating that six hundred acres of it was 
good for agricultural purposes ! 

At Nevada, Broderick told the story of 
Gwin's last election to the Senate, giving that 
version which made Latham party to the larce- 
ny of the Tilford letter. Latham, at Shasta, 
pronounced the story untrue in every respect. 
Gwin, at Yreka, called it a " lie," and vile and 



BITTER PEESONALITIES. 557 

slanderous. In another place lie ridiculed chap. 

. . • XXXVII 

Broderick's pretensions to ability to address m- _1^_^' 
telligent audiences ; his first speech in the Sen- 1859. 
ate was a failure, his second he read from a 
manuscript. Broderick, at Quincy, Jnly 21st, 
spoke of " Gwin's low scurrility," accused him 
of being^ the paid ao-ent of the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company, and repeated a confident 
belief that both Gwin and Weller were inter- 
ested in the Line Point swindle. Latham, at 
Nevada, told his version of the Senatorial bar- 
gain, which is incorporated in our account of 
that abominable transaction. At Sacramento he 
said, in a strain quite foreign to the campaign, 
that the future historian would put this down 
among the remarkable features of the year 1859, 
that while Barnum was lectuiing in England 
upon honesty, and Lola Montez was lecturing 
in Scotland upon feminine virtue, David C. 
Broderick was lecturing in California upon 
political honesty. Broderick, at Red Blufi*, 
spoke of Gwin's "utter worthlessness of char- 
acter, his unreliability of word, his sneaking 
manner of acting." Gwin, at Alleghany Town, 
said of Broderick, " He is at my feet ; I have 
my foot upon his neck. ... I intend ... to lash 
him with a scourge of scorpions, and shingle 
him over with the falsehoods and libels he has 
uttered against me and others." He pronounced 
the charge of his being the paid agent of the 



558 THE IIISTOET OF CALIFORNIA. 

(jiiAP. Pacific Mail Steamship Company false, and the 

XXXVII . . 

J_^^_, author of it a slanderer and calumniator. " Such 
1859. a man will soon be banished from eveiy gentle- 
man's house, if he is now tolerated in any." In 
a card, dated August 11th, Gwin claimed it 
proven that Broderick intended to use the posi- 
tion he held to j)ay his electioneering debts. 

The liepublicans, all this time, were much 
divided as to whether they should fuse with the 
anti-Lecompton party, with a fair prospect of 
electing a portion of their ticket, or maintain 
Iheir isolation, plead their distinctive doctrines 
from the stamp, avoid all entangling alliances, 
and boldly accept immediate defeat as part of 
the drill necessary to " organize victory " in the 
future. 

A distino-uished stranorer had arrived — Hor- 
ace Greeley, of the New York Tribune^ covered 
with boils, and very much fatigued with the 
overlan-d journey, yet lecturing on literary sub- 
jects, addressing great cro^vds concerning the 
Pacific Railroad, giving audience to admirers, 
and not loath to tender advice to his Ilepul)lican 
friends. Being urged to do so, he wrote a let- 
ter to the public (August 20th), giving the 
I'easons why it is l)etter to take half a loaf than 
no bread, why McKibben, Democrat as he was, 
should be re-elected to Congress, and wdiy Re- 
publicans and anti-Lecompton men should unite 
to defeat the Lecompton ticket. 



HORACE GEEELEy's ADVICE. 559 

Tlie advice was not well relished in all Ee- chap. 

• XXXVII 

publican quarters. Frank M. Pixley published ^^ , ' 

in pamplilet form a bold denunciation of the 1859. 
fusing scheme. He believed that all the rough 
things Broderick had said of Gwin, Weller, and 
Denver were true, but he charged that Brod- 
erick was no better. He regarded Broderick 
responsible for the acts of the Executive of the 
State " while Bigler cumbered the guberna- 
torial chair/' for he ruled the Governor with a 
rod of iron, dispensed his patronage, and dis- 
posed of his bounty. He could see nothing to 
choose between Gwin and Broderick ; both were 
" equally bad, equally corrupt, both unscrupu- 
lous, and both surrounded by equally bad and 
contemptible men." Broderick had voted with 
Bepublicans in the Senate simply because the 
President had tabooed him, and there was no 
place for him on the Administration benches. 
In his political career he saw nothing but the 
shrewd, imperious, self-willed, unscrupulous pol- 
itician. While admittiiis: his freedom from the 
stain of personal immorality, if he " should give 
a list of all the blacko-uards that ever infested 
San Francisco, that ever stuffed a ballot-box, or 
raised a 2:)lug-muss on election-day, he would 
name the political friends of the Hon. David C. 
Broderick." 

One of the Republican candidates for Con- 
gress withdrew on the eve of election, and the 



560 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOKN"!!. 

CHAP. Republicans cast their votes for Baker and 
"^_^^McKibben. It was in vain, however; Latham 
1859. was elected Governor, and Biu^ch and Scott to 
Congress. 



JUDGE TERRY AND BRODEEICK. 0(j1 



CHAPTER XXXVm. 

BRODERICK'S DEATH.— NOTABLE DUELS. 

Election beino: over, Juds-e Terry descended ^^-^^Vt 
from the Supreme bench, to demand of Broder- ■ — , — > 
ick an apology foi- the uncomplimentary remark ]^^^- 
which Perley heard at the breakfast-table of the 
International more than two months previous, 
and excepted to. By note he asked a retraction 
of the language used. Broderick asked what 
he understood the language to be. Terry re- 
plied : " You said, ' 1 have heretofore considered 
and spoken of him (Terry) as tlie only honest 
man on the Supreme Court bench ; but I now 
take it all back.' " But if that was not the 
exact language, it made no dijfference ; he asked 
a retraction of any words which were calculated 
to reflect on his character as an officer or a gen- 
tleman. Broderick responded, repeating his 
exact language, which was about as the other 
had heard it, with this addition, " During Judge 
Terry's incarceration l:»y the Vigilance Commit- 
tee, I paid two hundred doUars a week to sup- 
port a newspaper in Lis defence." , " You are 
the best judge," added the writer of this note, 

36 



502 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CEiAP. evidently snrpnsed that at a time wlien such 

' ^_^_ violence of speech was tolerated, language so 

185!). very temperate and mild should be selected to 

shoot him for, " as to whether the lano;ua2:e 

affords good grounds of offence." 

As mortal combat was predetermined, they 
wasted little more time on preliminaries. Brod- 
erick's friends held, that if his remarks at the 
International table were to be withdrawn, 
Terry's, at Mr. Benton's church, which provoked 
them, should also be withdrawn. But Terry 
had nothing to retract, nor had Broderick. So, 
on the morning of the 11th, they met for a 
duel just over the San Francisco line, in San 
Mateo County ; but Chief Burke, armed witli a 
warrant from each county, came suddenly up, 
arrested them, and put a stop to proceed- 
ings. The police court dismissed the charge, 
because no violation of the law had been 
committed. 

At seven o'clock on the morning of Septem- 
ber loth, the combatants met again at another 
point in San Mateo County, some twelve miles 
from the city, and no police interfered. About 
fifty spectators were present. Terry's seconds 
were Thomas Hayes and Calhoun Benham ; 
Broderick's were McKibben and D. D. Colton. 
Broderick won the choice of positions and the 
word of fire. Terry won the choice of weapons, 
which were duelling pistols ; distance, ten paces. 



brodekick's death. 583 

At the word, tlie principals raised tlaeir pistols, chap. 
but Broderick's discliara:ed itself before beins:^ 
brought to a level — tlie ball striking the ground 1859. 
some distance in front of his opponent. Terry's 
fire followed but a second later — he exclaiming, 
" The shot is not mortal ; I have struck two 
inches to the right ;" then, as he saw Broderick 
slowly falling, he and his friends retired. The 
ball had entered Broderick's breast near the 
right nipple, and lodged in the left side. He 
was taken on a litter to the road, and then con- 
veyed to Leonidas Haskell's residence at Black 
Point. He was in great pain, and oppressed 
with a heavy load on the chest, except when 
relieved of sensibility by anaesthetics. One 
who was by his bedside says that he ex- 
claimed, " They have killed me because I was 
opposed to the extension of slavery and a cor- 
rupt Administration." Occasionally he appeared 
to rally, but he soon fell into delirium again, 
and, at twenty minutes after nine on the morn- 
ing of the 17th of September, he died. 

On the coroner's inquest, the gunsmith who 
loaded the pistol Broderick used said it was 
more delicate on the trigger than Terry's; 
though the seconds declared that- they were 
ignorant of the fact. S. H. Brooks, the new- 
ly elected State Comptroller, loaded Terry's 
weapon. 

The remains of the deceased Senator were 



564 THE HISTOET OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, removed to the Union Hotel, there to He in 
state for a time. On Sunday, the 18th, the 
1859. funeral was celebrated. Colonel Baker deliv- 
ered one of his matchless orations over the 
body, to a gi^eat crowd assembled on the plaza. 
It was a glowing tribute to the memory of his 
friend, which told the more emphatically be- 
cause it was not unrelieved eulogy. He said, 
that in his judgment, when Broderick sought 
to anticipate the senatorial election, he commit- 
ted an error which he lived to regret. He 
urged that no man suppose his friend's death 
" was caused by any other reason than that to 
which his own words assicrned it. It had been 
long foreshadowed ; it was predicted by his 
friends ; it was threatened by his enemies ; it 
was the consequence of intense jDolitical hatred. 
His death was a political necessity, poorly 
veiled beneath th^ guise of private quarrel." 
Concerning the code to which this costly sac- 
rifice was brouo:ht, the orator said : " Fellow- 
citizens, one year ago I performed a duty such 
as I perform to-day, over the remains of Senator 
Ferguson, who died as Mr. Broderick died, 
tangled in the meshes of the code of honor- 
To-day there is another and a more eminent 
sacrifice. To-day I renew my protest ; to-day I 
utter yours. The code of honor is a delusion 
and a snare ; it palters with the hope of a true 
courage, and binds it at the feet of crafty and 



baker's eulogy of broderick. 565 

cruel skill. It surrounds its victim with the chap. 
pomp and grace oi the procession, but leaves _.^_, 
him bleeding on the altar. It substitutes cold 1859. 
and deliberate preparation for courageous and 
manly impulse, and arms the one to disarm the 
other. It may prevent fraud between practised 
duellists, who should be forever without its 
pale, but it makes the mere 'trick of the 
weapon' superior to the noblest cause and 
truest courage. Its pretence of equality is a 
lie: it is equal in all the form; it is unjust in 
all the substance — ^the habitude of arms — the 
early training — the frontier life — the border 
war — the sectional custom — the life of leisure ; 
— all these are advanta2:es which no neojotiation 
can neutralize, and which no courage can over- 
come." 

From the Plaza, the body was borne to Lone 
Mountain Cemetery, accompanied by the Pio- 
neers, a benevolent society, some two thousand 
citizens on foot, and a long procession of car- 
riages. At the grave, two Catholic clergymen 
officiated. Father Gallagher, to the mourners, 
said their friend died repenting his misguided 
act : " He addressed me as a father; I regarded 
him as a son in Christ." A monument of 
granite has since been erected on the hio^hest 
ground in the cemeteiy, whence the ocean and 
the city, and the mountains of the coast range 
across the bay, are together visible, marking the 



Di5& THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, spot wliere Broderick's remains repose. At a 
short distance from it is the grave of liis friend 

1859. who pronounced the oration over his bier. 
Colonel Baker, soon after these funeral cere- 
monies, went to Oregon, assisted in the political 
campaign that carried that State in opposition 
to the Buchanan Democracy, and was elected 

1860. (I860) United States Senator. On his way to 
Washington, he was received at San Francisco 
with triumphal honors by the Republicans, 
who claimed him to be theirs quite as much as 
Oregon's Senator. In the Senate chamber, his 
eloquence shone no less illustriously than in 
the halls and from " the stump" of the Pacific 
coast. 

Baker was born in England, but reared, 
since six years of age, in America. Deprived 
in youth of all near relatives, except a younger 
brother, whom he supported by his work as a 
weaver, in Philadelphia, he went to Blinois, 
studied law, was elected to Congress, raised a 
regiment of Illinoisans, whom he led into Ihe 
Mexican war, where he won distinction, and in 
1851 removed to San Francisco. 

The Slaveholders' Rebellion bursting out 
into open war soon after he had taken his seat 
as Senator from Oregon, he raised a regiment 
of volunteers at the East, during the Congres- 
sional recess, which gloried in the name of the 
" California Reo-iment," and took it into service. 



TEREY ESCAPES UNPUNISHED. 507 

At Ball's Bluff, wliile gallantly leading his chap. 
brigade against tlie enemy, lie fell pierced by " 
six bullets. His body was taken to San Fran- i860. 
cisco, where it was received with memorable 
ceremonies, including a funeral oration by Ed- 
ward Stanly, and another at the grave by the Aug. 18. 
Rev. T. Stan- King, and buried at Lone Moun- 
tain. 

A will was found in Washington bearing 
Broderick's signature. As the propei-ty it dis- 
posed of was valued at some four hundred 
thousand dollars, the will was vigorously 
contested, but it was finally admitted to pro- 
bate. 

^ Terry, when he saw that he had seriously 
wounded his opponent, hastened to Sacramento, 
and thence to his farm near Stockton. He had 
left with a friend his resignation of the judge- 
ship before the duel came off, to be sent in to 
the Governor only on condition of such a result 
as did follow. And now he signified his readi- 
ness for trial. The case was postponed from 
time to time, moved from court to court, and at 
last, on a change of venue, taken into Marin 
County, where the Seventh District Court was 
in session, temporarily presided over by Judge 
Hardy, who came all the way from Mokelumne 
Hill for the purpose. On the day set for ti'ial, 
the witnesses from San Francisco were becalmed 
on the bay. The court waited a little while, 



568 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, tlien the prosecuting^ attornev moved a 7iolle 

X.XXVIIT . '' 

__^_^ 'prosequi., and the farce was ended. After the 

I860, war of the rebellion broke out, Terry went 
overland to Texas, joined the rebels, and troub- 
led California no more. 

There had been some notable duels in the 
State before this one which proved fatal to 
Broderick. The bloodless ones brought a storm 
of ridicule upon all concerned ; some very 
bloody ones, where the principals hacked each 
other with swords till both were shockingly 
mutilated, and one party or the other butchered, 
were quite as much calculated to disgust sen- 
sible people with ^^ the code." 

Edward Gilbert, senior editor of the AUa 

1852. California newspaper, and one of the first Con- 
gressmen chosen by the State after its organiza- 
tion, challenged J. W. Denver, State Senator 
from Trinity, for reflections on him in a polit- 
ical letter. Denver accepted, and on the 2d 
of August, 1852, at Oak Grove, near Sacra- 
mento, the duel came off, the weapons being 
rifles, the distance forty paces. At the first fire 
both missed — Denver purposely, it was said. 
At the second Gilbert fell, and in a few minutes 
died. 

On the 21st of August, 1858, at Angel Isl- 

1858. and, George Pen Johnston, and Mr. Ferguson, of 
Sacramento, a State Senator, fought a duel, the 
cause being the offensive way in which the Sen- 



NOTABLE DUELS. 569 

ator, in a drinlciDg saloon, told a story in wMcli cnAP. 

a young lady of Johnston's acquaintance fig-" , , ' 

ured. They fought with pistols, at ten paces dis- 1858. 
tance, which, in the unsatisfactory progress of 
the engagement, was shortened to six paces. 
Four shots w^ere exchanged. On the fourth, 
Fero-uson fell with a fractured tliiojh-boiie. 
Twenty-four days afterwards he died, while the 
surgeons were amputating his leg. Johnston 
surrendered himself to the Marin County author- 
ities, was tried, and acquitted, on the ground 
that Ferguson died not from the effects of the 
wound, but because he had refused to allow an 
earlier amputation. 

Since the Broderick duel, there has been but 1861. 
one "affair of honor'' that has caused much 
sensation in the State. It was between Daniel 
Showalter, of Mariposa, aged thirtj^-two, of 
Breckinridge Democratic politics, and Speak- 
er j97'6> tempore of the Assembly of 1861, and 
Charles W. Piercy, aged twenty-four, Douglas 
Democratic member from San Bernardino. The 
Union resolutions came to a vote in Asseml^ly 
under operation of the previous question. Sho- 
walter asked leave to explain his vote. Piercy 
objected. Showalter said he had " nothing but 
contempt for any gentleman who objects." The 
quarrel was nursed till the Legislature adjourn- 
ed. Then Piercy sent a challenge, which was 
accepted. They met eight miles from San Ra- 



5 TO THE HISTORY OF CALIFORIilA. 

CHAP, fael, at four o'clock of tlie 25tli of May (1861\ 
,_^_^ "with rifles, at forty paces, and in presence, as 
1861. was customary, of a considerable number of 
witnesses. At the second shot Piercy fell dead. 
The law is stringent enough in letter, but it 
has never punished the duellist, and still it is 
felt that duelling is not likely again to be re- 
sorted to by gentlemen in the State. A drunk- 
en vagabond may, and not nnfrequently does, 
challenge some one to mortal combat, with the 
effect of bringing himself into the station-house 
and into contempt. The change of politics, the 
decay of bogus Chivalry, and the constantly in- 
creasins: influence of the New En2:land senti- 
ment, have effected the reform. 
I860. Governor Weller surpi'ised the people by ap- 
pointing Henry P. llaun, of Marysville, to oc- 
cupy the Senatorial seat made vacant by Brod- 
erick's death, until the Legislature should 
choose a permanent occupant. Haun served for 
one term, and then died. On the 13th of Feb- 
ruary he announced to the Senate his prede- 
cessor's death. He said that he fell "in an 
unfortunate conflict, which was engendered by 
the use of unguarded expressions by the de- 
ceased, personal in their character towards an- 
other distinguished gentleman, who occupied a 
high and honorable position in the State of 
California." He moved resolutions of respect, 
and an adjournment for the day. 



SENATORS ON BEODEEICK. 571 

Mr. Critteudeii reminded Senators that Brod- chap. 
erick always made his mark wherever he 
stood. Mr. Seward said impartiality would re- i860. 
quire the historian to raise Houston, and Rusk, 
and Broderick to the rank among the organi- 
zers of our States, which the world has assigned 
to Winthrop and Villiers, Raleigh and Penn, 
Baltimore and Oglethorpe. Foster said he 
must vote ao;ainst the resolutions, on the ground 
that the subject of their eulogy died by a duel 
They were adopted. 



i)i^ . THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTEE XXXIX. 

A POLITICAL REVOLUTION. 

CHAP. So soon as the Legislature of 1860 assembled, 
■ the struggle for Broclerick's place began. The 

I860. Democrats were in power as usual. Ninety- 
seven of them went into caucus together, and 
on the first ballot Ex-Governor Weller had 
thirty-eight votes ; Ex-Congressman Denvei', 
thirty-one ; Judge Baldwin, eleven ; Collector 
Washington, nine; and General McDougall, 
eight. They tried it again on an early ensuing 
evening; Baldwin was withdrawn, Denver 
stepped aside, and the first ballot showed La- 
tham, fifty-one ; Weller, forty-three; Washing- 
ton, two. The result startled the people, who 
had just elected Latham Governor, but caucus 
asked no permission from the people. The two 
houses met in Joint Convention on the 11th of 
January. A Sacramento member nominated 
Latham, a San Franciscan nominated Oscar L. 
Shatter, and John Conness for the Anti-Lecomp- 
tonites nominated Edmund Randolph. The 
first ballot gave Latham (who the day before 



LATHAM ELECTED UNITED STATES SENATOR. 573 

was iiiaiig-uratecl Governor) ninety-seven, Ran- chap. 

> -, . XXXIX 

dolpli fourteen, Sliafter tliree. 

Latham, having achieved the object of his i860. 
ambition, resigned the reins of State Govern- 
ment to John G. Downey, Lieutenant-Governor, 
a man without political history or experience, 
but not destined to be without a popularity, 
especially in San Francisco, quite new to Chief 
Executives in California. The Leo;islature 
shaped its labors mainly with the view of se- 
curing all the patronage possible for the Demo- 
cratic party, that it might go with reasonable 
expectations into the Presidential election of 
the coming fall. It passed l)ills for the inspec- 
tion of beef and pork, and multiplied licenses, 
not so mucb for I'e venue purposes, or because 
those staples needed inspection, as because fa- 
vorites and men skilled in the tactics of primary 
conventions wanted paying places. It crowned 
its unwelcome labors with an act authorizing 
substantially the joint wharf companies of San 
Francisco to build a sea-wall, or bulkhead, along 
the city front, and to take toll of all that passed 
it into the city for fifty years to come ; mean- 
while mocking the State with the tender of the 
reserved right to buy the work on completion 
at cost and ten per cent, yearly interest. It 
was a barefaced imposition of a heavy tax on 
commerce for the benefit of speculators, whicli 



574 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. San Francisco resented with profound indigna- 

XXXIX.,. ^ ^ 

, tion. 

I860. Now it had been claimed that Latham was 
pledged against the scheme, and that, knowing 
he could not be moved to favor it, he was sent 
to the Senate by the Bulkheaders' influence, to 
get him out of the way. If so, they calculated 
without their true host. Governor Downey 
lacked experience, Init not resolution, and when 
the enrolled bill went to him for the executive 
sanction he vetoed it. 

The Bulkheaders were boiling with wrath ; 
San Francisco went into ecstasies. The citi- 
zens demanded a visit from the little Governor 
of Irish birth and iron backbone, and, when he 
reluctantly consented, they met him at the 
Sacramento boat, with a torchlight procession 
that shamed every precedent in that line. They 
escorted him to his temporary residence with 
music, and banners, and cheers, through streets 
illuminated with bonfires, costly pyrotechnics, 
and transparencies, exhibiting mottoes of wel- 
come, and with rockets and Roman candles, 
often defined triumphal arches, over the route. 

This veto killed the bulkhead, Avhich, in one 
form or another, had been the great topic of strife 
ever since Bigler advised the water-front exten- 
sion. After that it was heard of no more as 
a living lobby scheme. The Union Legisla- 
ture of 1863 passed an act creating a commis- 



DOWNEY VETOES THE BULKHEAD BILL. 575 

sion composed of three citizens, to be elected in chap. 
a way satisfactory to the whole people, to 
manage the wharves and apply their reve- i860. 
nues, hitherto stopping mostly in private hands, 
to needful repairs and the construction of such 
a sea-wall as the wants of commerce and the 
protection of the harbor demand. The work, 
though just beginning, is in satisfactory shape, 
and promises the happiest results. 

Downey won the gratitude of the friends of 
a free press, too, by pocketing a bill concerning 
libel, intended to punish for their outspoken, 
honest editorials, certain papers at the Bay that 
lashed the Treasury thieves into continuous 
fury. The gratitude of the Bay City people 
towards the Los Angeles apothecary, who played 
the part of Governor so much better than any 
of his predecessors had done, was unbounded. 
There was nothing they would not have given 
him, but that his Southern proclivities drew 
him, towards the close of his term, upon a rock 
which, in the stormy times, no craft could graze 
without serious damao-e. 

That year, for the third time, the people, by 
direct vote, repudiated the proposition for a 
convention to revise the Constitution. Desirous 
as they were to secure and enjoy certain changes 
in the organic law, especially to place the Su- 
preme Court on a more satisfactory footing, and 
reduce the ordinary expenses of government, 



576 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, they refused the risks incident to a general 
XXXIX . . 

,_^'revisal. As early as 1852 the Chivaliy had 

I860, unsuccessfully attempted a convention, with the 
secret purpose of dividing the State and erect- 
ing the southern half into a Slave Territory. 
From that time the friends of Union and of 
freedom were very chary of creating any oppor- 
tunities that secessionists or slavery extension- 
ists might possibly use mischievously. 

The result of the fall election (18(30) proved 
that the anti-slavery doctrines, urged with so 
much persistency in regions that seemed to give 
no token of respect for them, by Kepublican 
stump speakers and a portion of the press, not 
always without peril of insult, and for the ora- 
tors showers of stale eggs, had taken unex- 
pected hold of the interior; that the Northern 
sentiment was strengthening in the larger cities; 
that the quarrels of the Democracy and the cor- 
ruption of a party that ran the State for its 
spoils, had worked out their legitimate result 
in the dissfust of its more intellii^ent adherents. 
The popular vote gave Lincoln, for President, 
a plurality of seven hundred over Douglas, and 
three thousand more for Douglas than for 
Breckinridge — the total vote cast being one 
hundred and nineteen thousand eight hundred 
and twelve. Mr. Lincoln received the four 
votes of the State in the Electoral College. 
The influence of Broderick dead was even 



THE CHIVALRY CRUSHED. 577 

i^reater than lie had exerted liviner. To the chap. 

party of which he had been the leader belonged , ^ 

half the credit of the change. The Chivalry 18(50. 
were utterly crushed. 

The Legislature then elected, and which met 
in January, 186-1, had few Republicans in it, i^^i- 
but the color of the new Democracy differed 
materially from that of the old. Both houses 
adopted a concurrent resolution pronouncing 
untrue and expunging the resolutions of cen- 
sure on Broderick, passed t"wo years before. 
They rather distinguished themselves by their 
more generous than just gifts and franchises to 
individuals and comj)anies, of which the privi- 
lege of laying horse railroads in the streets of 
San Francisco was chief The first three of 
these popular institutions were granted that 
year, and, whether the scandal about the cor- 
rupt appliances used to obtain their charters 
was true or not, it is certain that on the rail- 
road question, as on a pivot, turned almost all 
the other local legislation. 

That Legislature accomplished £?lso the al- 
ways difficult job of electing a United States 
Senator, taking nearly three months for it. 
Gwin's seat was to become vacant on the 3d 
of March. The split in the Democracy was too 
wide to be bridged by any caucus, and it was 
not attempte;]. The Assembly, willing to tiy 
the paces of candidates, invited all aspirants to 

37 



578 THE HISTiOKT OF CALIFOENIA. 

CWAF. address it publicly. General McDongall alone 
^_^__, ■ ventured to the platform, for it was a time, just 
1861. on the eve of war, when trimming politicians 
shrank from committing themselves. Edmund 
Randolph was sick in bed, and lost that oppor- 
tunity to pledge himself to loyalty. But 
McDoagall made an excellent Union speech. 

About the middle of February the Douglas 
men began to assemble in caucus. One even- 
ing, twenty-six members being present, McDou- 
gall received thirteen votes, Randolph six (not- 
withstandino^ that his name was withdra^\ii 
during the progress of the voting), Edgerton 
three, Griffith two. So McDougall was the 
nominee of the Douglas caucus. 

The other kind of Democrats tried in vain to 
obtain a caucus. The Republicans were more 
harmonious, and on the twelfth ballot nomina- 
ted Timothy G. Phelps. 

The Legislature went into joint convention 
on the 9th of March, with the following result : 
Weller twenty-seven, Phel2:)s twenty-three, Mc- 
Dougall twenty-seven, Nugent nine, Denver 
sixteen, Wbitesides sixteen, Hoge five, and 
others three. On the 19th, the Breckinridge 
and anti-McDougall Democrats met to the num- 
ber of forty-six in caucus, and nominated John 
Nugent, formerly proprietor and editor of the 
San Francisc(3 Herald. In joint convention 
next day, on the twenty-second and last ballot, 



UNION MAY MSiETING. 579 

McDougall had fifty-six, Nugent forty-seven, chap. 
Weller six, Phelps one, Creanor one. To obtain 
this result, which gave just the necessary uum- isGi. 
ber to elect McDougall, Phelps changed his 
vote v^^hen he stiw that the Republicans, by 
uniting with the Douglas men, could elect a 
man firmly pledged to the Union, and save the 
State from being represented in the United 
States Senate by John Nugent. 

The news that Secessionists had fired on Fort 
Sumter reached the Pacific coast late in April, 
and it fired the Union-loving heart of Califor- 
nia. A great meeting was held in San Francis- 
co on the 11th of May, business being susj)end- 
ed, and the day devoted to it. Several promi- 
nent citizens, of dubious tendencies before, took 
then their stand openly for the Federal Govern- 
ment and against the seceders. In September, 
Captains Halleck, Naglee, and others of mili- 
tary education went East, tendering their ser- 
vices to the Administration. The election that 
fall was a positive triumph for the Republicans, 
an overwhelming one for the two Union par- 
ties. Three candidates for Governor were in 
the field : Leland Stanford, Republican ; John 
Conness, Douglas Democrat ; J. R. McConnell, 
Breckinrido-e Democrat. Their votes were, for 
Stanford, fifty-six thousand and thirty-six ; for 
Conness, thirty thousand nine hundred and 



580 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, forty-four ; for McConnell, thirty-two thousand 
seven hundred and fifty-one. 

1862. Still, the Legislature that met January, 1862, 
was not Republican; the party never had a 
nominal control in the Legislature, thou2:h that 
year the Federal and State offices were filled by 
Republicans. The majority of the members 
were of Democratic antecedents, elected by a 
union of the Republican and Free-Soil Demo- 
cratic votes. For the local reputation of the 
party that elected Mr. Lincoln it was just as 
well so. A Hood that submerged Sacramento, 
and made its streets only passable for boats, 
compelled an early adjournment of the Legisla- 
ture to San Francisco, where the session was 
completed. It did a wholesale business in the 
way of franchises for ferries, bridges, and toll- 
roads. It abounded in local and special legis- 
lation. But it submitted some wholesome 
amendments of the C(.)nstitution, which the 
people adopted cheerfully, and on the great 
national question it was sound. It impeached 
Judge Hardy (of the Terry farce), and the 
Senate, sitting as a court, found him guilty of 
using treasonable language, and deposed him 
from the bench of the Sixteenth District. 

The Legislature of 1803 was almost entirely 

1863. Union. The distinction between Republican 
and Douglas Democrat had vanished. It is 
strange that, without opposition enough to act 



LEGISLATIVE CONDUCT. 581 

as a brake upon it, the party did nothing to chap. 
damage tlie commonwealth; for it cannot be 
denied that party needs j)arty to check it, and 18G3. 
that nothing is so wholesome for a majority as a 
comj^act, stubborn minority to watch it. Phelps 
and Sargent, who were both in the House of 
Eepresentatives, Trenor W. Park, and John 
Conness, were candidates before caucus for 
United States Senator. After a long and 
heated struggle, Conness won the caucus nomi- 
nation, and the joint convention ratified it. 

The Legislature of 1864 was, like its prede- 1864. 
cessor, loyal in all its utterances, and reflecting 
by its acts no discredit upon the party to which 
an overwhelming majority of its members be- 
longed. But the importance of the subject jus- 
tifies a more extended reference to the temper 
with which California has re2:arded her relations 
to the Federiil Government. 



582 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAFTER XL. 

EELATIONS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

When the Southern States began to secede, 
California was ruled by a Democratic Governor, 
1861. a Democratic Legislature occupied its capital, 
and four Democrats were its representatives in 
Congress. Her foi'ts were garrisoned by men 
whose loyalty in so trying an hour could only 
be surmised. It was not without fears for the 
result that the position of the State was ob- 
served from "Washino-ton. 

The Kepublicans and Douglas Democrats in 
the Legislature united to elect General James 
A. McDougall to the United States Senate, who, 
though a Democrat, placed himself squarely on 
a coercion and war platform. They also se- 
cured the passage of a resolution declaring that 
the people would not fail in fidelity and fealty 
to the Constitution and the Union, and the 
State would at all times respond to any requi- 
sition that might be made upon it to defend 
the republic against foreign and domestic 
foes. 

Brigadier-General Albert Sydney Johnston, 



PERILOUS POSITION. 583 

a native of Kentucky, commanded the Pacific chap. 
Department. While it was not supposed that _^^^ 
a soldier of his honorable antecedents could isGi. 
betray a trust as Twiggs had done in Texas, his 
sympathies were known to be with the South, 
and if Kentucky should secede it was feared 
that he mio:ht " g:o with his State," as was the 
political fashion of the time. 

It is said that Edmund Eaudolph (for till 
Virginia seceded he was for the Union) com- 
municated information, which, through Colonel 
Baker, was transmitted to President Lincoln, to 
the effect that a scheme was meditated for turn- 
ing California over to the Confederacy. It was 
known, too, at Washington, that Jefferson Da- 
vis had offered Johnston the major-generalship 
of the rebel armies, a fact which Johnston did 
not communicate to his superiors in authority. 
General Edwin V. Sumner received orders to 
proceed to the Pacific coast at once. He board- 
ed the Aspinwall steamer after she left her 
wharf at New York, and came unannounced. 
Arriving at San Francisco, he immediately 
called upon General Johnston, and conveyed to 
him the proofs that he was relieved. Johnston 
was not surprised. A friend in Washington, 
who was afterwards dismissed the [service, had 
surreptitiously notified him by pony express 
that Sumner was coming, and, availing himself 
of that information, Johnston had already dis- 



584 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, patclied his resignation to the Department. 
^^..^ He turned over the forts, arsenals, tfec, to 
1861. his successor, and soon proceeded South by the 
overland route throuo-h Texas. He was intrust- 
ed with an important command in the Confed- 
erate service, and was killed in l^attle on the 
field of Shiloh. Sumner arrived here in April 
(1861), but not a day too early. 

The great May meeting in San Francisco 
cheered the friends of the Administration as to 
the stand of that city, but whether the State 
would back up the city was still somewhat in 
doubt. The leading independent papers which, 
while there was any hope of a compromise, 
pleaded for peace, and deprecated coercion, 
with the news of the attack on Fort Sumter 
earnestly pronounced for the war, and brought 
their support to the Administration, in its 
most vigorous efforts to crush out the rebel- 
lion. The pulpit was eloquent for Union, and 
for the war necessary to preserve it. In San 
Francisco the national flao; was hoisted over 
most of the churches, not including those of the 
Episcopalians and Catholics, who, though pro- 
fessing equal respect for the flag and all it sym- 
bolizes, thought that even it should not be 
placed on a consecrated building. 

But to the rule of loyal utterance from the 
pulpit there was one marked exception. The 
Rev. Dr. Scott, of Calvary, preached peace with 



THE REV. J. STAKE KING. 585 

offensive zeal. In liis public prayers he would chap. 
not omit the petition for blessings on " all 
presidents and vice-presidents," which the public I86I. 
interpreted into a prayer for Jefferson Davis as 
fervent as for Lincoln. One morning, in Sep- Sept. 
tember (1861), an effigy of the doctor was 
found hanging in front of his church. He 
trimmed hi^ words, and read carefully wi'itten 
prayers, but he could not conceal his sympathy 
with the seceders. Great crowds gathered 
about his church on Sunday, and there was 
much danger of some disgraceful outbreak. 
But the bold stand of the independent press 
against mob law, and the prudent management 
of the police, averted the dreaded riot. Hap- 
pily, Dr. Scott resigned and left the country. 
His warmest friends (and his personal traits 
and popular preaching made him many friends) 
were glad to see him safely out of the way of 
the mischief that his inability to keep silence 
on stirring pertinent themes was always l)rew- 
ing. 

Among the clergy who did great service to 
the Union was the Rev. T. Starr Kino;, who 
came from Boston to San Francisco to take 
pastoral charge of the First Unitarian Church. 
Besides his reputation as a pulpit orator, he 
brought with him an enviable name as a lec- 
turer. He delivered a course of lectures, soon 
after his arrival in 1860, on miscellaneous 



586 THE IIISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, literary subjects, wbich were very mucli 
'^^' relished by critical audiences. Being pretty 
18G2. fully reported by the press, every corner of the 
State was soon demanding him to repeat the 
course, and invitations were showered in upon 
him to speak on extraordinar}^ occasions and 
special topics. Though his first lectures were 
purely literary, he soon began to mix in the 
wholesome doctrines of free speech, human 
rights, abhorrence of slavery, and the impei'a- 
tive necessity of Union. There was a charm in 
his delivery that few could resist. He was re- 
ceived with applause where Republican orators, 
saying things no more radical, could not be 
heard without hisses. Delicately feeling his 
way, and never arousing the prejudices of his 
Learers, he adroitly educated his audiences to a 
lofty style of patriotism. The effect was obvious 
in San Francisco, where audiences were accus- 
tomed to every style of address ; it was far 
more noticeable in the interior. 

Afterwards, as politics became simply a ques- 
tion of Union or Dissolution, he construed 
sermons, lectures, addresses, orations, all to the 
one end of deepening the Union sentiment, and 
even occasionally took the stump for candidates 
who promised best to keep the State headed 
right for Union. 

When, in 1863, a United States Senator was 
to be elected, there was much desire to secure 



PAETY PEOCEDUEES. 587 

his services for the honorable position, but he char 
modestly dissuaded his friends, and discouraged ,_^J^ 
all thought of it. He had a higher ambition. 1863. 
The senatorship was for six years ; of the sacred 
office he already held, his tenure was for life. 
Though holding a faith rejected by most of the 
clergy with whom he cordially co-operated for his 
country, they allowed no question of sectarianism 
to divide their patriotic labors. His valuable life 
was cut short by diphtlieria, in the Spring of 
1864. The people of the State mourned his 
departure as if news of the loss of a battle had 
been telegraphed to them. He was buried in 
the enclosure of the beautiful church which his 
enterprise had just pushed to completion, and 
which constitutes his appropriate monument. 

The political parties had soon found their 
places and taken them. The Republicans July, 
dropped all but their name, and came out un- 
conditionally for the Union. The Central Com- 
mittee of the Breckinridge Democrats coquetted 
with the Committee of the Douglas Democrats 
for a fusion, but the latter declined all offers, 
and the factions parted companj^ The conven- 
tion of the DouQ-las Democrats met on the 4th 
of July (1861), under the name of the Union 
Democratic party — Douglas was dead — and 
nominated John Conness for Governor ; Downey 
having ruined his chances for a nomination, by 
a letter to the great May meeting at San Fran- 



588 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, cisco, ill wiiich lie said : " I did not believe, 
nor do I now, that an aggressive war should be 
waged upon any section of the Confederacy, nor 
do I believe that this Union can be preserved 
by a coercive policy." 

The Breckinridge Democracy met July 23d. 
Their convention was less remarkable for its 
milk-and-water resolutions, and its list of un- 
successful candidates nominated for office, than 
for a crazy speech, made by the eccentric Ed- 
mund Randolph. That able lawyer, who had 
a passion for siding with hopeless minorities, 
was almost dying with the disease that shortly 
afterwards proved fatal to him. Appearing in 
this convention, where his presence was a sur- 
prise, and being tempted into a speech, he 
said, among other things : " Gentlemen, my 
thoughts and my heart are not here to-night in 
this house. Far to the East, in the homes from 
which we came, tyranny and usurpation, with 
arms in its hands, is this night, perhaps, 
slaughtering our fathers, our brothers, and our 
sisters, and outraging our homes in every con- 
ceivable way shocking to the heart of humanity 
and freedom. To me, it seems a waste of time 
to talk. For God's sake, gentlemen, tell me of 
battles fought and won. Tell me of usurpers 
overthrown ; that Missouri is again a free State, 
no longer crushed under the armed heel of a 
reckless and odious despot. Tell me that the 



Randolph's crazy harangue. 589 

State of Maryland lives again ; and oil ! gentle- chap. 
men, let us read, let us hear at the first moment ._^_ 
that not one hostile foot now treads the soil of I86I. 
Virginia, [Applause and cheers.] If this be 
rebellion, then I am a rebel. Do you want a 
traitor, then I am a traitor. For God's sake 
speed the ball; may the lead go quick to his 
heart, and may our country be free from this 
despot usurper that now claims the name of 
President of the United States. [Cheers.]" 

The result of the election settled the status of 
California abroad. The Kepublicans and Union 
Democrats together polled eighty-six thousand 
nine hundred and eighty votes; the Breckinridge 
Democrats, thirty-two thousand seven hundred 
and fifty-one. In his retiring: messao-e, Govern- 
or Downey claimed that he had faithfully rep- 
resented the people on the Union and War 
questions. "Although," said he, "with one 
single exception, the only Executive of all the 
Free States entertaining political proclivities at 
variance with the party administering the Na,- 
tional Government, not one of them can have 
displayed a greater promptitude in obeying 
every constitutional requisition of the Presi- 
dent." However, when, a few days later, Leland 
Stanford was inaugurated, the people breathed 
more freely, for now their Executive was un- 
equivocally, and without any reservations, for 
the Union. 




590 THE HISTOET OF CALIFOENIA. 

In Congress, Cnlifornia was unfortunately rep- 
resented at first. The course that Senator 
Gwin has since taken was expected of him. 
Still, in his last session, he denied that he had 
said in case of a disruption California would go 
with the South, and protested that she was for 
the Union. His exit from the Senate was oc- 
casion of great joy to the State that so long 
honored him. 

Senator Latham, before the election of Lin- 
coln, had predicted that California, if the divi- 
sion came, would either go with the South or set 
up for herself. At the session of 1860-61, he 
took back the prediction, saying he was satis- 
fied he had mistaken the sentiments of the j)eo- 
ple. Returning to California in the spring of 
1861, he made Union speeches on the stump. 
In the Senate, he voted generally to sustain the 
war policy of the Administration ; but, return- 
ing in the summer of 1862 to California, he 
went about denouncing the Administration, 
parading its alleged corruption, charging that 
it had perverted the Avar into a war of aboli- 
tion. So he was quietly shelved. 

Senator McDougall, who succeeded Gwin, 
grievously disappointed those to whom he 
owed his election. He voted most -war meas- 
ures, but he seemed at heart with the opposi- 
tion. The Legislature of 1864, by concurrent 
resolution, charged him with violating the let- 



CALIFORNIA SENATOES ON UNION. 591 

ter and spirit of Lis pledges, and repudiated chap. 
him as a wilful misrepreseutative of the wishes, _1.^J^ 
the opinions, and habits of the people. I86I- 

Senator Conness, who succeeded Latham on 
the great questions involving the life of the 
nation, has, so far, truly represented his constit- 
uents. 

In the early summer of 1862, impressed with 
the necessity of uniting more firmly all friends 
of the Union to prevent accidents that would 
damage the reputation of the State, or cause in 
the General Government any possible suspicion 
of the loyalt}/' of California, the Kepublicans 
and Union Democrats united in one strong 
Union party. The Kepublicans laid down their 
old organization at once ; the Union Democratic 
leaders, lagging behind the rank and file, still 
adhered to theirs. The only State ofiBcer to be 
elected that year was the Superintendent of 
Common Schools. The Union candidate re- 
ceived some thirteen thousand majority over 
both the other candidates, though one of them 
was the nominee of the still surviving Union 
Democratic organization. In the fall of 1863 a 
better opportunity was afforded for a test of 
the strength of parties. The Union party nomi- 
nated F. F. Low for Governor ; the Democrats 
chose their strongest man, ex-Governor Downey, 
who still professed Unionism; and there was 
no third candidate. Low had nineteen thou- 



592 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSnA. 

CHAP, sand six liiindredand sixty-one maiorlty, and was 
elected. Three members of Congress were 

i8()i- elected — all tLoronghly for the Union, and dis- 
^" posed to stand by the Administration in its 
most earnest measures for the vigorous prose- 
cution of the war. The Legislatures for the 
years 1862, 18G3, and 1864 vied with each 
other in the expression of the immovable deter- 
mination of the people to sustain the Union at 
every hazard. Nothing more could be asked in 
the way of pledges. 

And now, as in every department the State 
was right loyally represented, it was fortunate 
that the amendments to the Constitution had 
gone into effect, under which the State officers 
were to serve four years, the Legislature to 
. meet but once in tw^o years, and the Supreme 
Court to l)e reorganized l)y the election of five 
judges, and the one of them who drew the 
longest term to hold office for ten years. The 
Judicial election (1863) resulted in the election 
of five first-class lawyers to the l)euch — -S. W. 
Sanderson, O. L. Shatter, John Curry, Lorenzo 
Sawyer, and A. L. Rhodes ; men whose ability, 
purity, and patriotism were alike unquestioned. 
In whatever other way California could prove 
her loyalty, she did it heartily. In accordance 
with the requisition of the General Govern- 
ment, t^vo regiments of cavalry and five of 
infantry w^ere organized in the fall of 1861. A 



UJS^EQUIVOCAL UNIONISM. 593 

part of tliese troops were set lo garrison tlie char 
forts on the Pacific, a part were sent East by ,_\ 
steamer, and a column of seventeen companies, 186I- 
five of them cavalry, crossed the plains for New ^^^*' 
Mexico. There was no draft in California, her 
quota never having been announced to the 
provost-marshal. 

She expressed her eagerness through the press 
and her representatives to furnish her full 
quota of men for the army, but her great dis- 
tance from the seat of war led the Government 
to decline her tendered aid to any large extent. 
However, many citizens left business, went East, 
and entered the service, being accredited to 
other States. 

There was not the zeal for volunteering here 
that sometimes swept over that portion of the 
North nearer to the field of action ; for the 
prospect of being shut up in Pacific coast forts, 
or sent to hunt Indians, was not as well calcu- 
lated to kindle enthusiasm, as when, by enlist- 
ing, one might reasonably expect to meet rebel 
foes, and expend on them the indignation he 
felt at the sight of traitors struggling to over- 
throw the best of human governments. 

At a time when relief for wounded soldiers 
was most needed, citizens of the State contribu- 
ted seven hundred thousand dollars in gold to 
the Sanitary Commission ; and to other organ- 
ized devices for aiding those on whom the war 

38 



594 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, bore heavily, tbey were proportionately gener- 

_^__, ous. 

1861- Congress, at the special session of 18G1, im- 
■ posed a direct tax upon all the States. Califor- 
nia was the first to collect and pay her propor- 
tion, which amounted to nearly two hundred and 
fifty-five thousand dollars. Though mostly col- 
lected in gold, the State Treasurer paid it over 
in greenbacks, to the great disgust and indigna- 
tion of the people, who felt that such economy 
was at the expense of their reputation. The 
Legislature turned the difference in the exchange 
over to the benefit of the United States volun- 
teers from the State. 

There was only one point on which the pa- 

1863. triotism of California could be misunderstood. 
Gold and silver constituted the exclusive cur- 
rency of the State, yet United States paper, 
which early depreciated from the gold value 
expressed by its face, had been made a legal 
tender by act of Congress. To avoid collisions 
between debtors and creditors, and to maintain 
credit upon a sound basis, the Legislature of 
1863 enacted a law which required the- 
payment of debts in any specified currency 
agreed upon by a written contract. The whole 
mercantile community had urged the law. 
Without it, they said, credit must vanish; no 
man would lend gold, or sell goods at gold 
prices, when there was danger that on the day 



CURRENCY QUESTIONS. 595 

of settlement he would be tendered depreciated chap. 
paper in payment. The opponents of the law ._^_ 
protested that it was a virtual nullification of 1803. 
an act of Congress ; every State should encour. 
age the Government by accepting its money. 
Then, would capital flow into a country where 
the national dollar lost half its value making 
the transit? 

The act went into instant operation, and the 1864, 
same Supreme Court that pronounced the legal- 
tender act in accordance with the Constitution 
of the United States, decided the sj)ecific con- 
tract act in harmony with the State Constitu- 
tion. The result was gratifying. Public sen- 
timent settled down upon the use of two dis- 
tinct currencies. Even without a written con- 
tract it was understood that an honorable man 
paid his debts in gold, unless he had originally 
stipulated to pay in paper. The difference in 
exchange upon Eastern capitals greatly favored 
purchasers in those markets under the high 
prices ruling there. Californians, on striking 
the balance, could scarcely discover that they 
suffered at all from the war or war prices. One 
obtains a fresh impression of the extent of our 
country when lie sees so vast a war raging over 
such wide fields, yet sees a State within the 
Union, sympathizing heartily with the Govern- 
ment, busy in all the arts of peace, experiencing 



596 THE mSTOEY OF CALIFOE]S"IA. 

CKAP. no financial inconvenience, and feeling no appre- 
ciable share of tlie burden. 
1864. No political party had dared for years to 
suggest the propriety of a tax upon the mines. 
The General Government owned them, yet it was 
obviously to the general benefit that they be 
diligently worked, and that nothing hinder 
their production. Without the gold of Califor- 
nia the expenses of the war could not be met; 
nothing must discourage its constant and steady 
flow. But every thing else was being roundly 
taxed. Was it right to exempt one business so 
profitable — one class of laborers so able to pay ? 
In 1864, Congress levied a tax of one-half of 
one per cent, upon gold and silver bullion, to 
be paid by the assayer ; and the patriotism of 
the people restrained them from even a murmur 
of objection. 

When, in November, the fairest of opportu- 
nities was afforded, by a Presidential election, 
to test the sentiment of the State, the ticket 
pledged to Lincoln and Johnson was elected by 
thirty thousand majority. 

Californians could not be indifferent specta- 
tors of the great events passing in the Missis- 
sippi Valley and the Atlantic and Gulf States. 
Even if they had had no stake in the struggle 
between barbarism and civilization, no share in 
the glory of establishing the Union in perpetu- 
ity, or the shame of permitting its dissolution, 



CALirOENIANS OK THE FIELD. 597 

tliey knew too many of tlie actors on bott sides chap. 
to stand by as cool observers* without emo- 
tion, 1864. 

The regular army and navy being small be- 
fore the war, most of the officers of rank had in 
their turn spent some time upon the Pacific 
coast. Grant was lono; stationed in Oreojon. 
The leading men of California were on terms of 
intimacy with Sherman, who was resident part- 
ner of the banking house of Lucas, Turner & 
Co., having narrowly escaped with his life on 
his arrival, in 1853, by swimming ashore from 
the wreck of the steamer S. S. Lewis^ just 
north of the Golden Gate ; with Farrao-ut, the 
hero of New Orleans and Mobile, who was at 
Mare Island during the Vigilance Committee 
rule ; with Hooker, who owned a ranch in So- 
noma County; with Fremont, whose Mariposa 
estate embraced a notable gold mine ; with 
Halleck and Baker and Shields, who had prac- 
tised law in San Francisco; with Stoneman, 
who tried with Hooker, but failed, to make a 
saw-mill profitable at Bodega; with McPher- 
son, who went from Alcatraz to the war, and 
was killed in front of Atlanta; with Lander, 
Buell, Ord, Keyes, Heintzelman, and Sumner, 
who chafed at his lono; detention on the Pacific 
side while younger men were reaping such har- 
vests of fame; with the veteran Wool, with 
Harney, Denver, Naglee, and Geary, the first 



598 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORXIA. 

CHAP, mayor of San Francisco; with Hancock and 

_^^_, Stone, Porter, Boggs, and many others whose 

I8fi4. achievements, in different degrees, contributed 

to the lustre of American arms, and heljDed to 

crush the great rebellion. 

Nor in the enemy's j-anks were there lacking 
men who had cut some fio-ure in the State's his- 
tory. Gwin maintained a show of neutrality at 
first ; then escaped through the lines to Missis- 
sippi. When Grrant's army came into those 
parts, the house where his daughter lived was 
burned ; the family retired to Richmond, and 
afterwards, running the blockade at Wilming- 
ton, escaped into France. Albert Sydney 
Johnston went from commanding the Pacific 
Department to commanding Confederate sol- 
diers. Major Garnett, who was sent out with 
T. Butler King by President Taylor, to urge 
the organization of a State Government, and 
who devised the State seal, which, with amend- 
ments, was adopted, went East when Virginia 
seceded, and fell in battle, rallying his men to 
resist McClellan's force in West Virginia. B. F. 
Cheatham,of Stockton, was made a major-general 
in the Confederate service, and was at Belmont 
and Shiloli, Perryville, Murfreesboro', and 
Chickamauga. Comptroller Brooks was a vol- 
unteer aide in Cheatham's staff at Chickamauga. 
Calhoun Benham was on Johnston's staff at 
Shiloh, and afterwards with Breckinridge. 



CALIFORNIA'S ON" THE FIELD. 599 

Judge Terry was on Bragg's staff at Chieka- chap. 
manga. Magruder, femous, wlien a captain in ^_^ 
the United States army on this coast, for being i864. 
so generally intoxicated, had charge of the de- 
fences of Yorktown when McClellan attempted 
the peninsular route to Kichmond. Herbert, 
the member of Congress who killed the Irish 
waiter, was killed on occasion of Banks's Red 
River expedition. Many another resident, 
whom California was happy to spare, joined the 
Confederates, and kept their sympathizers at 
home well posted with rebel news. 

The patriotism of California, in its popular 
form, was excessively radical. It believed in 
the extirpation of slavery as the root and cause 
of the war. The loyal press maintained jealous 
watch . over suspicious quarters. Loyal Leagues 
were extensively organized, and did good ser- 
vice quietly in keeping the peace. 

One little schooner, the Ohapman, was fitted 
out from San Francisco secretly, for a piratical 
excursion, but she was overhauled before sail- 
ing, and confiscated. The two principals to 
this nefarious scheme were tried, convicted, and 
imprisoned. But one of them (Rubery, the 
Englishman) was ' pardoned by the President, 
at the solicitation of John Bright; the other 
(Ridgley Greathouse) was released, after a brief 
confinement, by Judge Hoffman's strict con- 



600 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, struction of the President's Amu estvProclama- 

XL. ,. "^ 

^_^_^ tion. 

1864. Until tlie Presidential campaign of 1864, it 
was rare to hear a public disloyal utterance in 
California. A few violent haranguers, such as 
" General " Chipman, E. J. C. Kewen, and C. L. 
Weller, ex-postmaster of San Francisco, were 
arrested and lodged in Alcatraz, for using trea- 
sonable language publicly and defiantly, but 
their own jDolitical friends refused them any 
capital or special consideration in the conven- 
tions on the strength of their martyrdom. 
Brigadier-General Wright, who, after Sumner's 
return East, and until General McDowell in 
1864 relieved him, had command of the Pacific 
Department, was as prudent as prompt, and as 
delicate as firm, in the exercise of militaiy au- 
thority. The general unanimity of the people 
made his task easy ; yet a less judicious com- 
mander might have ^precipitated trouble any 
month. 



EESOUECES OF CALIFOKNIA. 601 



CHAPTER XLI. 

RESOURCES OF THE STATE. 

Notwithstanding that every year more and chap. 
more of the treasure of the mines is detained in ,_^ 
the country for permanent investment in its en- i864. 
terprises, and for improvement of its homes, the 
export keeps steadily on at nearly the old 
figures. The steamers, for years leaving three 
times a month, with a regularity quite surpris- 
ing, took each more than a million to cast into 
the circulation of the world. This is a marvel, 
considering the alleged hazards of every mine, 
and the lottery that gold-hunting is said to be, 
even when the enlarged area of the gold-field is 
taken into account. It forces the conclusion 
that the business, after all, is much more steady 
and regular than is generally admitted. 

The export of treasure from San Francisco, 
as manifested at the Custom-House, was, in 
1857, $48,976,697; in 1858, $47,548,025; in 
1859, $47,640,462 ; in 1860, $42,303,345 ; in 
1861, $40,639,089 ; in 1862, $42,561,761 ; and 
in 1863, $46,071,920. Since 1858, the amounts 
named embrace several millions a year, from 



602 THE niSTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, mines outside of California ; more tlian enougli 
^_^ to balance the increasing amounts retained in 
1864. the State, for it is not to be doubted that the 
gold yield of California, after increasing till 
1853, when over fifty-seven millions were ex- 
ported, has since gradually fallen off, for rea- 
sons to be named hereafter. 

The shallow placers or " dry diggings " of 
1849 and 1850 appeared, before 1863, to be, 
for profitable American work, about exhausted. 
They were wrought almost exclusively by 
Chinese, whose earnings are a clear gain to the 
country, for they glean with profit where whites 
could not make wages. John hoards some of 
it, but he is a good liver after his fashion, and 
is by no means a bad customer of the moun- 
tain storekeepers. The heavy rains of the 
winter of 1861 and 1862, by suj^plying the 
mines with plenty of water at just the right 
time for their operations, and still more by wash- 
ing away the accumulated tailings of several 
years' work, laid bare many a rich deposit, and 
made the placer-mining profitable again. 

The hydraulic method still pays well, though 
not as well as a year or two ago ; for the rich- 
est hills have been sifted, and hydraulicing in- 
volves such large expenditures for water, for 
sluice-boxes, for quicksilver, and for gunpowder 
to loosen the compact gravel, that, unless the 
ground is very rich, they cannot be aflbrded. 



VARIOUS METHODS OF MINING. 603 

Very costly, ratlier I'isky, yet, on tlie whole, chap. 
very remunerative is the system of tunnelling, 
which, by 1862, had outgrown in favor most i864. 
other methods. It bores deep into mountains 
to the supposed beds of ancient rivers. The 
peril .of missing the deposit is great, but when 
it is hit the reward is munificent. 

Attempts to separate gold from the quartz 
rock were early made on a large scale, and 
vdth results that discouraged capitalists. In 
1856 quartz-mining took a new start, and 
now there is not a mining county in the 
State but has several large, expensive, well- 
appointed mills, stamping and crushing the 
rock to a powder, and yielding lucrative re-- 
turns to owners. 

The yield of gold has been further affected 
by drought, by excessive rains, and lately by a 
series of rushes to other mining fields, that 
threatened to leave the interior of the State a 
desert: to Fraser Kiver, in 1858, draining the 
State, it was estimated, of twenty thousand of its 
population, most of which, however, found its 
way back again not long afterwards ; to Washoe, 
in 1860 and 1861, when about the same num- 
ber crossed from California to the eastern slope 
of the Sierra Nevadas, and most of them stayed 
there ; to the Salmon Kiver, and other Wash- 
ington Territory placers, in 1861 and 1862 ; to 
Idaho, as the Salmon River distiict is now 



604 THE HISTORY OF CAUFOETTLA. 

cnA.p. called, and Arizona, in 1863 ; and to Idaho, the 
Colorado region, and Mexico, in 1864. 

1864. These annual rushes have left many a local- 
ity, that was all alive with busy, boisterous 
men in the fall, desolate and silent in the 
spring ; and many a village that was full of 
excitement in 1858, is now drowsy and still, 
having parted with half its population since 
then. The largest interior cities suffered much 
by the depletion. Sacramento has not the pop- 
ulation to-day that it had four years ago; 
Marysville's growth was checked, Stockton's 
progress arrested, though not so violently. 

Since the spring of 1861, mines of silver, 
copper, and coal have been opened within the 
State, The silver veins of finest promise were 
chiefly found in the tier of counties lying along 
the western base of the Sierra Nevada, and in 
• the Owen's River re2:ion. 

Of copper, the richest and most explored de- 
posits are in Calaveras County, where the new 
business has started a new city into existence — 
Copperopolis. The copper ore is convertible 
into cash at the mouth of the mine. It is all 
smelted abroad, and no outlay for mills or fur- 
naces is required. The ore goes East or to 
Europe as freight, and already appreciably helps 
returning ships to eke out a return cargo. 

The coal is not of the secondary, but of the 
tertiary formation, good enough for creating 



KEW MINERAL mSCOVEEIES. 605 

steam or for purposes of fuel, hut not the best chap. 

• • ... XT T 

to work iron with. It is bituminous, breaks ,Jl..^_l^ 
readily, kindles easily, and burns with a flame. 1864. 
It is already produced in large quantity, and at 
a price that makes it unprofitable to import 
coal for ordinary uses. 

Inexhaustible quantities of iron have .been 
developed, but none is yet rendered available 
for use. Asphaltum in immense beds, and pe- 
troleum springs, if ,2:eologists and experts are to 
be trusted, are found in the southern part of 
the State. The former article, taken from the 
sea-shore, near Santa Barbara, is already exten- 
sively used for pavements and roofs. 

Besides these staples, other useful minerals, in 
wonderful variety and astonishing abundance, 
are found. Borax — a lake of it — salt, soda, sul- 
phur, flavoring a thousand springs, chalk, gyp- 
sum, nitre, marble, and building-stone — the 
catalogue of those not found here would be 
briefer than of those which are — are plenty. 
Yet some that make up the bulk of mountains, 
and are quite accessible, must wait for capital 
to abound, and wages to fall, before coming 
into market. 

A curious mania possessed the people through 
1863. "Prospecting" was the fever in the 1863. 
blood of the masses. There was a gener- 
al scouring of the State ; a ransacking in all 
gulches ; a testing of the character of the rocks 



606 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, in all localities. In tlie most isolated resrions, 

XLI . . . . & ' 

,__^__ and up to the fire limits of the cities, there were 
1863. little parties of men with pick and hammer 
breaking off the outcroppings of ledges, and 
with acids testing them for copper, silver, quick- 
silver, and other metals. Astonishing results 
followed. The coveted minerals were found 
in thousands of places. In the " cow counties " 
as well as in the mining counties, in the Coast 
Range as well as in the foot-hills of the Sierras^ 
north and south, and up to the bluffs of the 
ocean, amazing discoveries were reported. 

These prospecters generally had their ex- 
penses paid by a company, the members at home 
furnishing capital, and the travellers the work. 
Other enterprising men went out alone, and on 
their own account, searched diligently, and 
when they found what they sought, broke off 
a bagful of specimens, entered their claims at 
the nearest Recorder's office, and hastened to 
San Francisco to organize a company to hold 
and develop them. 

There was, no doubt, a great deal of false in- 
formation paraded, and many companies located 
on ledges that had no existence, to open " leads " 
entirely imaginary. Yet the greater number 
acted upon honest if mistaken reports ; if the 
members had visited the locality where their 
hopes lay locked, they would not have been 
undeceived ; though now to see the spot would 



A MINING-STOCK MANIA. 607 

excite only merriment at tlie thought that such chap. 
a commonplace rock could be accepted as the 
corner-stone of the grand fortune fancy once i864. 
reared on it. More than a thousand companies 
were organized in the State. Brokers' offices, 
with their windows full of choice specimens, 
threatened to monopolize the best business 
stands in the cities. Long-established firms 
sacrificed the advertisement of their plate-glass 
windows, brokers offering such tempting rent 
for a desk and a few feet of glazed frontage. 
Several boards of brokers were started, where 
shares in all sorts of companies were sold and 
reported daily. 

The assessments upon stockholders in the 
mining companies were very light at first, just 
enough to pay for office rent, a set of books, the 
engraving of a handsome certificate of stock, 
and possibly to keep a man or two developing 
the claim. 

Almost everybody bought mining stock. 
Nothing but war news could check the perpet- 
ual talk of "feet," " outcroppings," "indica- 
tions," sulphurets," and " ores," No profession 
or class, age or sex, was exempt from the epi- 
demic. Shrewd merchants and careful bankers 
invested the profits of their legitimate business, 
sometimes infringed upon their invested capital. 
Sharp la^vyers sold their homesteads for shares. 
Clerks anticipated their salaries, laborers " salt- 



608 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, ed away " their wages, and washerwomen their 



XLI 



earnings in " promising mines." 



1864. Some, getting their "feet" rapidly off their 
hands at an advance, made large gains, and 
their good luck stimulated all the rest. Oftener, 
as the assessments increased, the shareholders 
agreed to consider the company that hired them 
a "bilk," forfeit the stock, and plunge the deep- 
er into some other stock, to make amends. The 
lists of delinquent stockholders had to be pub- 
lished for a given time, before the shares could 
be sold at auction. These lists occupied a full 
page in more than one of the largest newspapers 
daily. It excited no surpi'ise to see the sound- 
est merchants' names fio-urinc; in these lists for 
large delinquencies, nor did it damage their 
credit. Perhaps they ^vere there to " bear the 
stock" — then the smallholders would cling the 
tiirhter, determined not to be "frozen out." 
Commercial speculations were almost entirely 
neglected, and Front Street took its heaviest 
risks in feet. The companies always had a 
nominal capital of immense amount. Any 
thine: under hundreds of thousands of dollars 
was deemed a small affair. 

The engraved mining-field was not limited 
to California. The prospecters and claim-takers 
traversed the desert far east of Virginia City 
and Aurora, and made populous the barren 
mountains of Eeese River and Humboldt. They 




A MINING-STOCK MAIHA. 609 

crossed the Colorado to the San Francisco 
Mountains of Arizona. They " took up " the 
islands of the coast. They overran the Mexican i804. 
border, and to the eastward of the Gulf of 
California, and among the sterile mountains of 
Lower California made their camps. 

A stranger coming into the State and inocu- 
lated asrainst the strang-e infection, in view of 
the immense nominal capital of the companies, 
observing how every knot of men discussed 
little lumps of commonplace rock, and talked 
geologically, hearing the wild talk of Presidents, 
Secretaries, and Directors as to the value of 
their claims, yet noting that many a President 
of a company incorporated for a million dollars 
could not pay for his lunch in lack of either 
cash or credit, would have pronounced it a 
sweeping madness, in which high and low, edu- 
cated and ignorant, men, women, and children, 
timid capitalists and penniless paupers, were 
alike involved. 

Some said they had seen fortune beckon be- 
fore, and, in their scepticism refusing to follow, 
lost what proved to be a splendid chance ; they 
trusted they were wiser now. Some bought as 
speculators, seldom paying cash, l:)ut exchanging 
scrip — "wild-cat" for "promising," and that for 
dividend-paying, of which, curiously enough, 
there were but four or five companies in the 
market, for few of the old, faithfully- wrought 

39 



610 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, mines were called on Exchange. Their hope 
_^ was that, by turning over their purchases every 

1863. few (lays, and selling enough to pay assessments, 
they would escape every peril of loss ; and they 
did, until the crash came, and they still had a 
hatful on hand worth only its weight at the 
paper-maker s. Others said the man ^\ as a fool 
who neglected such an opportunity, and sent 
for all their brothers to come out with what 
they could scrape together and be rich. 

If one said the whole thing was a delusion, 
he was pointed to the fact that the founderies 
were busy day and night filling orders for ma- 
chinery to go to these mines iu Mexico, Nevada, 
and unnamed because unknown regions both 
near and afar off. The fe^v sober ones, who 
were not carried away by the excitement, held 
that, while many must suffer as the result of 
their stock speculations, the general effect of the 
prospecting out of which tliey grew would not 
be bad ; that the soil of the State, for all this 
ransacking, would develop a noble harvest of 
minerals at some early future day. 

The bubble burst without any noise of ex- 

1864. plosion. In the summer of 1864 there was a 
sudden fall in the shares of the few dividend- 
paying mines. Opliir dropped fifty per cent. ; 
Gould and Curry, which had been taken as the 
standard of successful mines, sank still more. 
Then the wild-cat quietly stole out of sight. 



THE BUBBLE BURSTS. 611 

The brokers vacated their offices ; a few men chap. 

XLI 

went into insolvency. The masses pocketed ._^_^ 
their losses, and said little about them. They 1864. 
filed away their certificates of stock, lately so 
carefully treasured, as curious, useless pictures, 
tokens of experience gained, and pushed on 
with their legitimate business. It is astonish- 
ing, considering the amount of money that 
changed hands during the popular possession 
by this mania, how few were seriously injured 
by it. Wages were good, salaries high, busi- 
ness brisk. They paid high for their expe- 
rience, and could afl:brd it. The map of the 
country was written over with the localities of 
mineral deposits rich and abiding, though it 
might not pay to work them for some time to 
come. The prospecters had made a geological 
reconnoissance in force. As of all such prelimi- 
narv survevs, the advantao-es were not imme- 
diately developed. 

Agriculture grows rapidly in importance^ 
Though little more than a third of the area of 
the State is tillable land, not over a fortieth 
part of that tillable portion is cultivated. With 
the disadvantage of a summer so dry that much 
of the grain land will not, or rather has not pro- 
duced vegetables and fruit without irrigation, 
the farmer is amply compensated in the warmth 
of the winter, the length of the growing season, 
the prolific character of all vegetable life in Cali- 



612 THE HISTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, fornlaj and the Heedlessness of barns and gran- 
^^_^_^ aries. No vegetables are raised between Bos- 
1804. ton and Charleston that do not thrive in its 
soil. Fruit in every variety, common in semi- 
tropical or temperate climates, comes into early 
bearing, and for abundance, size, or flavor, has 
no competitor. 

It is held by some who have been in the 
business abroad, that there is no better grape 
land. All foreio'u varieties flourish, as well as 
the old mission stock. The crop never fails. 
No disease affects the vines thus far, and they 
are productive beyond precedent. Our wine is 
in the Eastern markets, and, though susceptible 
of great improvement, stands well, and is likely 
to be in greater demand every year. 

It is settled that California can feed herself, 
and comj)ete on favorable terms in supplying 
Europe when its grain crop fails. The Califor- 
nia wheat exceeds in strength and dryness, 
qualities that especially adapt it for transporta- 
tion through the tropics. The same qualities 
added to its whiteness, thin skin, plumpness 
and Aveii^ht, make it a favorite in all markets. 
In 1861 the wheat and flour exported from San 
Francisco was valued half a million of dollars 
higher than the provisions imported, including 
tea, coffee, and spices. 

Hitherto little has been manufactured in 
California which could be as well imported. 



EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. C)13 

Wages, though still higher than in any other chap. 

equally civilized country, are gradually falling, 

and with tbeir fall manufactures will multiply. 1864. 

Nothing else prevents the making of our 
finest woollen cloths, for the finest qualities of 
wool are liberally produced. The experiments 
tJiat have been made in manufacturing the 
coarser woollen goods, glass, powder, paper, and 
wooden ware, are flattering. Raising no cotton, 
smelting no iron as yet, here are large classes 
of goods long hence to be imported. We make 
our own lumber, and export much, but since 
there is a lack of tough woods in the State, our 
cari'iages, or at least our carriage materials, 
must be imported. 

San Francisco is inevitably destined to be 
the principal port of the Pacific. Her imports 
and her exports are about equal. Of the latter, 
gold is the chief. It is easy to handle, and the 
market is always clamorous for it. Unlike 
wheat- which becomes a drug: whenever all 
wheat-fields yield abundantly, our principal ex- 
port always commands a fixed, unvarying price. 
. Of our other exports, hides are at present an 
important item, but that resource will fail as 
better notions of ranching come into fashion, 
and cattle are esteemed for something else than 
their hides and tallow. Besides the vast 
amounts of quicksilver used in the State, more 
than a million dollars' worth was exported in 



614 THE HISTORY OF CALITORNIA. 

CHAP. 1861. The silver and copper ore sent abroad 

are rapidly increasing. The exports other than 

1864. gold in 1861 equalled more than one-sixth of 

the gold export — a fact of great significance 

and promise. 

Of the arrivals, during the year named, nearly 
half the tonnage was from domestic Pacific 
ports. Since then, the trade with Mexico has 
grown beyond calculation, and that with the 
northern coast enjoys a wholesome increase. 
The tonnage arriving from China was almost 
equal to that from Europe. Every year more 
and more whalers turn in for supplies. 

Business constantly assumes more stability, 
and less the character of speculation. In 1859, 
the applications for the benefit of the insolvent 
act were less than one-third the applications 
in 1855, and the number still decreases. Yet, 
the ruling rate of interest, from one per cent, a 
month on the best securities, to two and a half 
per cent., shows that capital still regards all 
business as perilous, or, at least, acts on the sus- 
picion. 

Gold and silver coins of the United States 
are the almost exclusive currency, but no coin 
less than a dime is in general use, though half- 
dimes are occasionally given and taken at i-etail 
stores in the cities. Coppers and nickels are 
curious rarities. Leo-al-tender notes of the 
United States are accepted for Federal taxes, 



EXPORTS AND IMPORTS. CJ 5 

Ibr judgments rendered (in default of a specific chap. 
contract) or fines inflicted by the courts. Other- 
wise tliey pass only at the ruling discount from i864. 
gold. 



OIG THE HISTOPwY OF CALIFOENIA. 



CHAPTER XLIL 

QUARRELS WITH NATURE.— COMPENSATIONS FOR 
APPARENT MISFORTUNES. 

CHAP. It has been supi^osed that Nature, so lavish 

^__^^_' of gifts to California, like a jealous lover, had 

1864. many quarrels v^^ith her. If it was so in the 

beginning, time, society, and the presence of 

stranccers are effecting: a cure. 

The earthquakes which tradition and the 
early Mission records make really serious affairs 
though frequent, have seldom of late done even 
the slightest harm. They inspire no more 
terror than a thunderstorm at the East, and are 
less to be dreaded. 

Ignorance, or neglect of the warnings of na- 
tives and old residents, exposed the sites of 
several inland cities to overflow from the streams 
on whose banks they were built. Thus Sacra- 
mento was flooded January, 1850, in March, 
1852, and from Christmas of that year to New 
Years of 1853, while the place was still black 
with the ruins of the great November fire, that 
destroyed the entire business portion of the 
city; and Marysville was flooded in 1852. Ex- 



FLOODS. 617 

pei'ience taught the necessity of building strong chap. 
levees above the level of the river at flood, and ,___!; 
of raising the street grades. 1864. 

This done, the cities enjoyed immunity from 
floods until the winter of 1861-2, when double 
the amount of rain fell that California had seen 
any year since 'the American conquest. The 
snows on the mountains melted under the 
warm rain, and the rivers, whose beds were 
filled with the tailings from the mines, soon 
overflowed their banks. 

The Sacramento levees would have held up 
against it, but that a railroad company had 
carelessly filled in with an embankment a space 
intended to be left as a bridge. The waters of 
the American, overflowing above the city, and 
being prevented by the dam of the railroad em- 
bankment from passing off behind it, flowed 
over the eastern levee and filled the city. This 
was the 9th of December. In a few hours the 
southern levee burst, and the waters in the city 
began to subside — small houses, furniture, cattle, 
and horses being carried away in the torj-ent 
through the crevasse. A million dollars' worth 
of property was destroyed in this brief sub- 
mergence, and more than five thousand sufferers 
required aid from the Howard Association of 
Sacramento, which disbursed some sixty thou- 
sand dollars for their relief, two-thirds of it 
being contributed by San Francisco. 



618 TIIE inSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP. On the lOtli of Januarv, 1862, the flood came 
ao;ain, stroiio-er and more devastatini^: than be- 

1862. fore. The effort to repair the levees bad j)roved 
a failure. As the waters rose in their dwell- 
ings, the occupants of the larger buildings took 
to the upper stories. Those in smaller houses 
either fled to the pavilion prepared for . them, 
or, if too late for that, climbed up on beds, ta- 
bles, chairs, keeping their flag or light of distress 
out to guide the reliefboats to their rescue. 
The streets for weeks were traversed only by 
boats. From the capitol roof no land was vis- 
i1)le in or near the city, except a small portion 
of the levee. Perhaps half the population of 
fifteen thousand sought refuge temporarily in 
other cities, chiefly in San Francisco, which sent 
up relief steamers with cooked provisions, 
money, and men, and put Piatt's Hall at the 
service of the rescued. 

But not Sacramento alone ; Stockton, Marys- 
ville, Napa, Knight's Ferry, lone, Jacksonville, 
and numerous other places were drowned. 
Houses, furniture, goods, fences were washed 
away. The cattle crowded in herds to the 
knolls, and in herds perished, as, after days of 
shivering and starvation, they tumbled into the 
sea. Their carcasses dotted the plains a year 
later. From the foot-hills of the Sierra to those 
of the Coast lian^re, from the foot of Shasta to 
the hills that lead up to the Tehon Pass, all the 



FLOODS. 619 

plain was converted into a lake, not unlike in chap. 
shape and size Lake Michigan. This immense 
body of water discharged itself through Suisun i862. 
Bay, the Straits of Carquines, San Francisco 
Bay, and the Golden Gate to the ocean. The 
height of the waters in the bay was not muck 
increased, but there ceased to flow in any flood- 
tide through the Golden Gate. For weeks the 
turbid yellow stream rolled continuously out, 
bearing tules, brush, and trees with it far out 
to sea. 

Is a flood to be anticipated periodically ? Is 
it to be provided against and still dreaded ? 
The straits at the head of Suisun Bay were too 
narrow an outlet for the waters accumulated in 
the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys ; that 
cause of a wide-spread overflow is not likely to 
be remedied until some other similar disaster 
indicates the necessity. But the flood itself 
washed out the tailings from thousands of 
flumes that had filled the river-beds. As there 
will be less' hei'eafter than heretofore of the 
kind of mining which disturbs the courses of 
the rivers, that prominent cause of floods is to 
a large extent removed. The exposed cities 
have lifted their main streets and levees above 
the highest water-mark. The farmers on the 
plains recognize the advantage of erecting their 
houses on a shallow mound, or at least of hav- 
ing one spot of higher ground on their premises 



620 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, as a place of refuc-e for the cattle. As there 

XLII 1 o 

^__^ had been no precedent for such a flood within 
1862. the memory of living men in the State, so no 
other such is anticipated, especially as the 
change from sluice and placer and hydraulic 
to quartz mining, will diminish the main cause 
of overflows that is suVyect to human control. 

California has occasionally suffered in several 
leading interests from drought. The stranger 
travelling through the southern part of the State 
in the late summer or early fall, would fancy him- 
self on a desert. The rivers that were swollen 
in December, are mere rills in their broad, dry 
beds. The earth that in May was carpeted with 
verdure, and gay with an endless variety of 
flowers, is broum, and no sign of grass aj^pears. 
Yet, to his astonishment, thousands of cattle 
browse on the apparent desert and grow fat. 
Closer examination shows the earth covered with 
the burs and stalks of a clover which the cattle 
enjoy and thrive on finely. With the first rains 
of November the grasses start, and as the win- 
ter deepens and spring approaches, flowers of all 
hues glorify the abundant pasture-grounds. 

But occasionally the fall rains come early and 
spoil the dry feed, and the spring rains late, 
which is hard for the cattle ; or the rains fail 
altogether. 

The season of 1809 and 1810 was an almost 
rainless one. The old missionaries took the 



DEOUaHTS. 621 

Lint, and after tliat saw that a stock of corn, chap. 

• XLII 

cbied beef, and beans sufficient for two years ^_^J^ 
were laid in. They set their Indians to fishing, 1862. 
too, that the sea might on emergency ehe out 
the food-supplies of the land. 

Ai^ain in 1820 and 1821 there was little rain. 
The great flocks and herds were straitened for 
pasture, and, by order of Governor Sola, hun- 
dreds of mares were killed, to save the pasture 
thev would eat. The Indians were sent out by 
the Fathers to gather pine-nuts and acorns, and 
thus economize their store. 

Between 1828 and 1830, a drought of nearly 
two years' duration afflicted the land, so that, 
as was estimated, forty thousand cattle died. 
The cropis (of the Southern Missions) were 
scarcely more than sufficed for seed, and the 
wells and springs of Monterey gave out. 

In 1840 and 1841, there was no rain at the 
south for fourteen months, but the range of the 
cattle was greater, and they suffered less than 
before. It is said that in 1855 and 1856, there 
were seventy thousand cattle lost below Mon- 
terey — dying of starvation and cold, after the 
fall rains destroyed the old feed, and before the 
new was fit to be eaten. 

The winters of 1862-3 and 1863-4 were 
unusually dry, and the cattle of the South suf- 
fered severely. Thousands were driven to the 
Matanzas to be slaughtered for their hides, and 



622 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORlSriA. 

CHAP, other tlioiisands, too much wasted to endure 

XT TT • • 

the drive to the coast, perished on the pLxins. 
18G2. The grain crop of the central part of the State 
was scarcely half what was expected. But the 
Russian River region, and certain other locali- 
ties near the coast and in the foot-hills, were 
singularly favored with rain, so that there was 
no scarcity of grain, and in the short supply 
the farmers got for their small crops about as 
much as for their larsrer ones before. 

The apparent misfortunes of California have 
not generally proved as serious hinderances to 
her growth as was anticipated. Some of them 
have soon discovered themselves blessino-s in 
disguise, while some, though very costly and 
at first glance altogether ruinous, have de- 
veloped afterwards undreamed-of compensa- 
tions. Fires in the early days ravaged the 
to^vns, and the value of the destroyed improve- 
ments seemed utterly lost. The Mission Fa- 
thers used to require the Indians to build their 
huts of combustible material, so that when 
they became intolerably filthy they could be 
burned down and out of the way. Some of 
our early fires did the same kindly office for 
the pioneers. Often badly chosen sites for 
cities were deserted because a fire swept off all 
that tempted the settlers — already aware of 
their mistake — to stay, and then a better site 
was chosen. The floods, that seemed to fetch 



COMPENSATION FOR APPAEENT MISFORTUNES. 623 

nothing hut ruin, had their compensations, chap. 
Interior towns, "built below a safe grade, were _^_ 
graded up while it cost comparatively little to 1862. 
^ do it, and levees were seasonably constructed ; 
sterile hill-sides were made fruitfid ; the breadth 
of the grain crop largely extended from the val- 
leys up the slopes ; the tailings of old mines 
were washed off, and new placers revealed. 

The drought of 1863 and 1864 was not alto- 
gether evil. The markets of meats, vegetables, 
and grains were still abundantly supplied, and 
the enhanced prices made the round year a 
better one than its flushed predecessor, for many 
farmers and ranchmen. If the event shows 
that the negligent system prevalent in the 
southern counties is to any large degree aban- 
doned by the owners of herds, the drought 
will prove to have benefited them immeasura- 
bly. A man owns a hundred wild cattle, and 
cannot produce a pound of butter or cheese 
from them : to get a glass of milk, perhaps will 
require an hour's labor with a vaquero to lasso 
the "tame cow," and an assistant or two to 
milk her. If drou2;ht or flood or famine will 
conspire to break up the lazy style of herding 
and farming at the south, the plains that are 
at times deserts may become fruitful prairies, 
and homesteads dot the long, dreary, solitary 
leagues that lie waste between San Juan and 
Los Angeles. A dozen well-conditioned tame 



624 THE mSTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

cattle miglit make riclier than he is the owner 
of hundreds of wild cattle, worth only the tal- 
1862. low and hides of their carcasses. 

Every enforced change in the method of 
mining has seemed to threaten ruin, yet gen- 
erally has resulted in permanent benefit to the 
region accepting the change. The exhausted 
placers went into the hands of Chinamen, whose 
aggregate washings and pickings are all clear 
gain to the gold in circulation. The old placer 
diggers, provided with the capital that the pan 
and rocker helped them to, turned to tunnels 
and hydraulics, which paid better dividends. 
When the richest hills are worked and sifted, 
and water charges are too high to leave hydrau- 
licing profitable any longer, the livers scoop 
out their beds again, and the danger of floods 
is reduced. In some of the rivers, where three 
years ago only a thin, yellow, muddy stream 
was moving, the bars already begin to be re- 
moved, and the channel to deepen, along which 
pours a clear tide again, reminding the early 
settlers of the look it bore when they first saw 
it. Again, every failure of a paying bar dis- 
perses a camp of miners to prospecting, and 
new resources are ])roufrht to lig-ht. The re- 
turning wave from Washoe, in 18G1, developed 
the copper of Calaveras, and many a deposit of 
silver; for the miners, when not too fiercely 
bitten with the fury for the last discovery, pick 



COMPETCSATION FOR APPARENT MISFORTUNES. 625 

both ways as tliey travel, and, es-pecially as chap. 
tliey return, question all tlie promising crop- __'^^. 
pings, and are geological surveyors of tlie most i8G2. 
practical sort. 

From 1860 to 1862, inclusive, the State's 
interior population apparently decreased. As 
it was owing principally to the rush to Wash- 
ington Territory, Idaho, and Washoe, it did not 
seem like so utter a loss as when, in 1858 and 
1859, British Columbia was absorbinsj its en- 
terprise and industry. This drifting into other 
Territories belonging to the Union could be 
borne the better, since it was only sowing, be- 
yond the border, harvests that California and 
the Union would jointly reap. But it was 
rouo^h at first on California. The middle tier 
of counties suffered most. Some of their mininsr 

o 

towns lost half their population. But the com- 
pensation was surprisingly quick in coming. 
Splendid roads over the mountains were con- 
structed, to meet the demands of the new set- 
tlements beyond the eastern border. A new 
and profitable market was opened for all that 
the orchardists and gardeners and fiT,rmers in 
the foot-hills could raise, and agriculture com- 
peted with mining as a profitable employment 
in what had been deemed exclusively mining 
counties. Factors appeared at the door of 
every man who had any thing in the shape of 
produce or grain to sell, with tempting prices 

40 



626 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOE]ST[A. 

CHAP, in hand. It stimulated the permanent settle- 
ment of the rich little valleys, and men, who 

1862. had drifted ever since their arrival, sent for 
their families and improved homesteads. Wa- 
shoe did for Californians what Congress should 
have done long ago ; it gave the miner an in- 
terest in the land. Then founderies started up 
in all the cities to supply a clamorous demand 
for machinery ; and when Washoe abated her 
demand, the stock of machinery that could be 
so easily turned out of these founderies stimu- 
lated prospecting for other fields within our 
borders to employ it. 

The social compensations for those rushes, that 
looked so frightful as they approached, were 
still more remarkable. With each rush went 
the worst class first. The gambling and drink- 
ing saloons and houses of ill-fame were the 
first to close up. They who remained gave 
more attention to theh' homes, to the education 
of their growing families, to their moral train- 
ing. Cottages took on paint, flowers crept 
more boldly up to the windows, vines trailed 
their glories to the sun ; and the cottage owners 
were not ashamed of these evidences of a taste 
that was deemed effeminate by the departed 
roysterers. School-houses were open longer in 
the year ; churches lost their musty, un ven- 
tilated air. 

It is growing all the while clearer that these 



COMPENSATION FOE APPARENT MISFOETUNES. 627 

rushes cause far more apparent than real loss chap. 
to the community. The class that runs, quick ^^^ ' 
as the mercury in the tilted level, at the first i8G2. 
report of great diggings in the distance, is not 
the most desirable class, though it is the noisi- 
est. Streets that were ringing with the songs 
of a score or two of riotous fellows, perambula- 
ting them through the early night, and brilliant 
with the light of open gambling and drinking 
saloons, are still and dark now, and the hasty 
observer might conclude that the life of the 
town had gone. It is only its wild, unprofit- 
able life that has vanished. A thousand well- 
to-do, steady people, in their homes, are not as 
noisy as the score of spenthriffcs ; a new mining 
camp of five hundred makes more noise at night 
than a New England village of five thousand 
people. But send a popular lecturer, or a good 
stump speaker, into these dull towns, and he 
will see the population swarm out to meet and 
cheer him. Unquestionably there are more 
elements of permanent prosperity in the State 
to-day than ever before; and though it is not 
true of particular localities, of the State as a 
whole, it is true that the growth has been steady 
and healthfuL 



628 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 



18G4. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

THE PEOPLE AND THE PROSPECTS. 

CHAP. The sixteen years of its occupation Lave not 
■^^^^- changed the early impression of the saluljrity 
of the climate of California. In the low dis- 
tricts, subject to overflow from the rivers, and 
in the parts where the miners constantly turn 
new soil to the sun, miasmatic diseases prevail. 
Rheumatism naturally waits uj)on the miner 
who exposes himself in ditches, or lies drilling 
and picking all day or night in a damp tunnel ; 
for, deep in a tunnel, night and day are indis- 
ting-uishable. 

The strong winds of the coast are severe for 
persons with sensitive throat or lungs. In San 
Francisco, throughout the year, the air is bra- 
cing, and tempting to work. Probably most 
of the ailments of the males in that city are due 
to the inspiriting air — in winter sufficiently 
cool to make gentle exercise agreeable, yet 
scarcely cold enough to require a fire, except as 
a cheerful addition to the picture of an evening 
at home ; in summer serene and delicious in the 
morning, a little chilly and invigorating with 



THE CLIMATE. 629 

the westerly afternoon winds, wliicli would be chap. 

• XLIEL 

always grateful but for the dust and sand with ^_^_^ 
which they are laden — a nuisance that will dis- 1804. 
appear as the streets come to be more generally 
planked down or paved, and new blocks of 
buildings furnish a lee. This very bracing, 
always stimulating condition of the air, tempts 
to overwork, and induces the diseases that 
grow out of constant, unremitting excite- 
ment. 

It will be remedied in part by fashion, which 
will establish certain times of the year as the 
proper ones to visit the coast or retire to the 
interior, to fly to watering-places, to loiter 
about the medicinal springs, to see the natural 
cuiiosities of the country, Yosemite Valley, the 
Big Tree groves of Mariposa and Calaveras, the 
Geysers, or to make excursions to the grape 
counties in the time of the vintage. At pres- 
ent, fashion only dictates, when one is over- 
worked, a trip to the Sandwich Islands, or 
overland or by steamer to the East, or to 
Europe. 

Society has wondrously improved since the 
Vigilance era. Most Californians were enter- 
prising, or they would not have migrated so 
long a distance ; intelligent, or they would have 
lacked the enterprise their very presence proves. 
They are great readers, because the majority 
received at least a common-school education at 



630 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, home, and their love of home, and their isola- 
tion, make reading a necessity to obtain the 

18G4. news and pass their leisure pleasantly. The 
newspaper is in every man's house, and it is 
doubtful if anywhere the newspaper is more 
admirably conducted to meet the wants of a 
people that believe in it. No American papers 
pay more for the earliest news than the leading 
journals of San Francisco and Sacramento ; none 
pay more attention to local news and interests ; 
few, if any, are more carefully conducted to 
prevent misleading those who leave their paper 
to do their thinking for them. Almost every 
sect and party has a representative and advo- 
cate, if not an organ ; and the religious press, 
though not at all profitable as a business spec- 
ulation, is influential. 

The common schools are at last upon such a 
basis that in the settled parts of the State any 
child may obtain as fair a primary education as 
in an Eastern public school ; of course there are 
regions sparsely populated, where the school- 
houses are long distances apart, and the schools 
kept but a small portion of the year. Private 
and select schools of superior excellence abound 
in the cities and their vicinity, and are exten- 
sively patronized, because parents are suspicious 
that their children learn too fast and too much 
in the public schools. Several colleges and 
professional schools have been planteLl. Such 



EDUCATIONAL CONDITION. 631 

institutions are of slow growth, but tliey are chap. 
rooting firmly and springing with fine promise. _^ 
As the j^eople of the Ameiican colonies long 1864. 
preferred to send their children to Europe to 
be educated, so hitherto the custom has pre- 
vailed in California of sending the boys to the 
colleges and the girls to the seminaries of the 
East. The custom will cease as the parents are 
weaned from their old homes, for motives of 
economy and the natural desire to keep one's 
family together conspire to give home schools 
the preference over even better ones abroad. 

The census of 1860 was so shabbily taken, 
that it almost demands an apology to quote it ; 
yet, in its rude approximation to truth, it ex- 
hibits some curious facts. According to its 
returns, only a little more than one-fourth of the 
white inhabitants were females. This dispro- 
portion of the sexes, greatest in the mining dis- 
tricts and least in the chief cities, accounts for 
the large though decreasing number of divorces, 
perhaps for some of the insanity and suicides 
that startle the community. Add to this that 
the mildness of the climate makes the people, 
to a large extent, an out-door people, permits 
them to hold exchange on the side- walk, tempts 
them to pleasure excursions into the country the 
year round, and requires no firesides in their 
homes, and there are suggested some of the 
chief social dangers of the State. 



632 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORI^IA. 

C[iAP. In San Francisco the Sabbath is scarcely less 
generally observed than in the Eastern cities. 

1864. The most notable diiference is, that the theatres 
are open on the Sabbath as on other evenings, 
though principally attended by French, Ger- 
man, and Spanish residents. In the country, 
though church spires and towers give the 
Christian aspect to all thriving interior towns, 
the proportion of attendants is exceedingly 
small, and it is easy to find men brought up 
under church influences who have not heard 
a sermon in a year, or only as among the curi- 
osities of the metropolis on visiting it. 

Away from the conserving influence of woman 
and home, living lives of hazard and excitement, 
there was danger that the masses would acquire 
habits of intemperance in drinking. The fear 
was not unfounded, nor the result other than 
was feared. The bracing climate sustained the 
hard drinker, and deluded him with the hope 
of longevity in spite of his excesses, until sud- 
den death terminated his career. The influence 
of exemplary business partnerships, of Sabbath- 
school, of church, of home, were potent within 
their circle, but the mass was outside their 
circle. A reform which proved widely influen- 
tial was inaugurated January 1st, 1859. A 
company of firemen ("Howard, No. 3"), sitting 
in their engine-house late at night, celebrating 
New Year after the custom of the country, fell 



MOEAL ASPECTS. 633 

to musing over their prospects, aud were voucli- chap. 
safed a vision of their probable fate. At last _^_J 
they agreed solemnly to discontinue the use of 1864. 
intoxicating liquor — to "dash away the cup." 
They organized a society of Dashaways, with 
Frank E. R. Whitney, chief engineer of the iire 
department of San Francisco, as their j)resident, 
pledging themselves to drink nothing intoxi- 
cating for five and a half months. They kept 
their promise, and, before reaching the limit of 
their self-imposed pledge, renewed it for all 
time. They rented a hall, started a library, 
opened an intelligence office, had meetings every 
Sabbath, at which clergymen and others were 
invited to address them, experience meetings in 
the afternoon, business and debating meetings 
in the evenings, went out seeking among their 
acquaintance for new men to be pledged, played 
the Good Samaritan to all drunkards, estab- 
lished branch Dashaway associations in other 
cities, and were felt for good wherever they 
went. Out of their efforts grew up the Asylum 
for Inebriates, which has a fine permanent 
building. They erected a hall of their own, 
where all strangers are welcome. Many who 
have been pledged have fallen away and been 
lost; but scores and hundreds it has saved. 
Many have doubted if the experiment could 
finally and lastingly succeed, querying whether 
the reformation it achieves is radical enough to 



634 THE HISTORY OF OALIFOENIA. 

CHAP, affect the fruit of a lifetime. Thus far it has 

^_^ succeeded beyond all expectation ; it has done 

1864. immense good at a time when it was most 

needed, and to a class not accessible to other 

means of reform. 

One question connected with this subject still 
perplexes the people. The State is to become 
a great wine-making country. But in wine- 
growing States the thin wines supplant tea and 
coffee as table drinks. How will this affect 
California society ? The grapes of the land are 
rich in sugar and excessive in the production 
of alcohol. Will the common use of wine made 
from them lead to abstinence from the poisonous 
adulterations of imported liquors? or will it 
but stimulate the appetite to a demand for still 
fiercer drinks ? Opinion is divided on the ques- 
tion, and there is too little experience yet to 
ofuide to a correct conclusion. 

There is no poor-house in California, and oiiO 
reason is because there are not many poor. 
The generation that settled the country is still 
young and able-bodied. The high cost of re- 
moval to the State prohibits poverty from in- 
vading it in force, so that its poor are its own. 
The people directly relieve utter destitution 
when they hear of it, and, l^ecause at San Fran- 
cisco there are hospitals, asylums, and many 
societies organized to relieve suffering, ease 
jooverty " over the centre," and assist the ailing, 



OIIAEITIES AND BENEVOLENCE. 635 

a prevalent metliod of relief in the country is chap. 

• • • XT TTT 

to help the afflicted down to the city ; if there ,__^^_^ 
they have no friends, and if to their other griefs 1864. 
they add home-sickness, San Franciscans cheer- 
fully help them back to their Eastern homes. 

The Indians are estimated to number, instead 
of the hundred thousand of the time of admis- 
sion, from ten thousand to fifteen thousand; 
and diseases acquired by their contact with the 
whites, whiskey, to which they are devotedly 
attached, and frequent skirmishes with the 
whites, are rapidly reducing that number. The 
opportunity to benefit them, the question what 
to do with them, will soon pass. They only 
haunt the outskirts, and are little real trouble 
even now. 

Governor Weller estimated the expenditures 
of the State and General Government, in tak- 
ing care of and fighting Indians, from the ad- 
mission of the State to 1859, at three million 
dollars. The Government, observing how the 
old missionaries made the Indians support 
themselves and lay up fat stores for the Fathers, 
devised, in 1853, the Reservation system, but 
committed the radical blunder of sending out 
professional politicians as Indian Agents rather 
than men with some tolerable idea of control- 
ling Indians by moral means, of winning their 
respect and benefiting them. The result was a 
.digraceful failure. An appropriation of two 



686 THE HISTORY OF CALLFOENIA. 

CHAP, hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually, 
_^_ for six or seven years, built ample granaries for 
18G4. the prospective crops, furnished pleasant head- 
quarters for the superintendents and employes, 
and helped to carry local elections as the Ad- 
ministration at AVashington wished them car- 
ried, but gave the Indians very little employ- 
ment or clothing or provisions. 

The money was wasted. The fertile nooks 
composing the Keservatious were coveted by 
the encroaching whites, and j^retexts for " clear- 
ing out" the Indians were easy. In 1858-9, 
at Nova Cult, one hundred and fifty Indians, 
including women and children, were slaugh- 
tered — the settlers said they killed their cattle, 
but neither settlers nor their cattle had any 
business in the valley. The settlers said the 
Government did nothino; for its wards at Kino;'s 
River, so they drove them over to Fresno. At 
a station near Mendocino several Indians were 
murdered. About Humboldt Bay and Pitt 
Kiver there was a series of massacres ; the blood 
cui'dles at the recital of the story by those who 
apologize for the murderers. The massacres 
were generally called " wars ;" sometimes the 
State took a hand, often er the Government 
troops came to the rescue, and, more by over- 
awing whites than by shooting Indians, re-es- 
tablished peace. 

Since 1860 the annual appropriation has been 



THE CHINESE PUZZLE. 637 

al-jout fifty thousand dollars. The Indians per- chap. 

XLIII 

haps get as much as when the sum was five ^,^_! 
times greater. Probably all that can be done i864. 
for the miserable remnant, is to give them 
ao-ents who will treat them with kindness and 
deal with the Government honestly. Men fit 
for the post can secure their confidence and 
rule them by kindness, can save their squaws 
from being stolen, and their children from be- 
ing kidnapped. Do that, and they are as harm- 
less as cattle, as inoffensive as sheep. If the 
General Government will only furnish them 
supplies enough to pass them over seasons of 
droup-ht, so that the alternative shall not be 
famine or cattle-stealing, and compel the whites 
to let them alone, the Indian question would 
be settled. They are the wards of the Gov- 
ernment at Washington. It, more than the 
State, is to blame for their maltreatment and 
abuse. If their fate reflects shame upon the 
settlers, so does the fate of all their race upon 
the settlers of the continent — a suggestion that 
is not made in a spirit of apology, but that any 
may consider well who meditate thK)wing the 
first stone. 

The Chinese puzzle is not solved yet. The 
number of Chinese in the State is estimated at 
from fifty to sixty thousand, and all belong to 
one or other of the fur companies that have 
their head-quarters at San Francisco. 



638 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

^^^- In 1859 the miners in one of the northern 
s— V — ' counties attempted to eject the Chinese from 
1864. the mines. The local authorities interfered to 
prevent the outrage, and Governor Weller, to 
his credit, aided them against the mob. The 
Legislature, impelled by a clamor about the 
competition of coolie with white labor, indulged 
in a series of spiteful legislation to the annoy- 
ance of the Chinese. In 1857 it levied a tax 
on Chinese immigrants, but the Supreme Court 
annulled it. In 1859 it taxed Chinese fisher- 
men four dollars a month, and the chief effect 
was to cause the whites to pay John a little 
more than they would have done for every 
pound of fish they bought. In 1862 it passed 
an act with the direct purpose of discouraging 
immigration, but the Supreme Court declared 
it unconstitutional and void. The cis-ar-makers 
raised a howl against the Chinese in 1862, and 
an attempt was made to drive them out of the 
gardens about San Francisco. But because 
they were neat and nimble-fingered and worked 
cheaply, they outlived the persecution; and 
now they make the cigars, pick the berries for 
market, do light mechanical work in the wool- 
len and other factories, and are appreciated as 
quiet, profitable helj). The State over, they are 
creating values out of nothing, of which Amer- 
icans receive the lion's share. As society 



THE CHINESE PUZZLE. 639 

grows stable they are sure to get better treat- chap. 
ment than hitherto. w.^ 

If the heathen moralist could say " whatever 1864. 
is human pertains to me," Christians certainly 
will not oppress these pioneers, though of a 
heathen race, whose presence is a perpetual 
challenge to the expansive missionary spirit to 
do what it can for their Christianization. If, 
when they meet us half-way, our Christianity 
cannot impress them, what prospect that their 
teeming land can be affected by any thing that 
our missionaries can do ? 

Kindness tells upon them as upon other 
folks. A few gather every Sabbath in San 
Francisco to the Mission Church, which, under 
the Rev. Mr. Speer, of the Presbyterian Board, 
or the Rev. Mr. Loomis, his successor, has been 
maintained since 1852. A few stray into the 
Sabbath schools and are welcome, while a con- 
siderable number attend the evening school es- 
tablished by the City Board of Education for 
their benefit, and where competent teachers in- 
struct them in English. 

There are a few other elements composing 
the population that do not easily mix with 
Europeans, but they are feeble in numbers and 
threaten no trouble. Cosmopolitan beyond 
all other lands, there is every reason to believe 
that after the first generation the people will 
seem homogeneous. 



640 THE HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 

California lias conquered ocean and desert, 
distance and isolation. Reg-ular lines of steam- 
•1864. ers were early established to convey mails and 
passengers from New York to San Francisco. 
At first these steamers ran monthly ; then every 
fortnight, and then, for several years, three 
times a month. The favorite line is by Pana- 
ma, especially since the railroad over that nar- 
row isthmus is finished from ocean to ocean. 
The fare is always high, seldom, except when 
shai'p competition reduces it, falling below two 
hundred and thirty dollars for the best, and 
eighty dollars for the meanest accommodations. 
Other routes occasionally compete for a share 
of the travel. 

In the early days there was much suffering 
on the journey, whatever the route. The deten- 
tion and hardships of the isthmus-crossing pre- 
disposed to cholera, and the steerage passengers 
especially were swept off with frightful mor- 
tality. Now, however, the trip is generally 
made in little over twenty-one days, and if the 
passenger affords himself the comforts that 
money and experience can command, he may 
with ordinary weather make his first voyage a 
pleasure excursion, though, after that, at the 
best it will prove tedious and tiresome. 

The terrors of the overland route, too, have 
been greatly diminished. In October, 1858, by 
act of Congress, a daily overland mail was 



COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE EAST. 641 

started, and tlie contractors j)ut upon the line chap. 
stages which whisk the passenger, paying about 
the same as first-class steamer fare, from Atchi- i864. 
sou to Placerville, in nineteen days. 

In the spring of 1860 the pony mail was 
stai'ted. Light, well-armed riders, carrying 
nothing but letters, dashed from station to 
station, on small, tough, fleet-footed horses, 
making the trip across the continent in nine 
days. It was a stirring thing to meet the pony 
in the mountains. By the winding of his horn 
the rider announced his coming, when team- 
ster, emigrant, and even aristocratic stage- 
driver 2:)ulled his team closer to the bank and 
let the pony pass. With a yell, perhaps, but 
no stop to parley, the rider flashed by on his 
galloping mustang, and the next winding of his ' 
horn showed him far off, already clambering the 
hill or plunging into the distant canon. 

But the pony was stabled forever on the com- 
pletion of the telegraph across the continent. 
This constant marvel was finished early in 1861, 
and one of the first messages that travelled the 
mysterious wire announced the death of Colo- 
nel Baker at Ball's Bluff. With occasional in- 
terruptions, chiefly from atmospheric causes east 
of Omaha, the telegraph has kept the people of 
California posted during the war with the news 
of the day almost as promptly as were they of 
the Eastern cities. The same dispatches tliat 

41 



642 THE HISTORY OF CALIFOEKIA. 

CHAP, went from Washington over niglit to New York 

. ^__, and iBoston were read next morning in San 

1864. Francisco. The difference in longitude operated 
to the advantage of the West, and atoned for 
the loss of time in repeating the message at 
Chicago, Salt Lake, or elsewhere. 

There still remains to be built that great 
bond of union, the Pacific Railroad. It is, 
begun, however, and the least sanguine expect 
it to be completed so that one may ride by rail 
from the ports of the Atlantic to the great 
metropolis of the Pacific within the next dozen 
years. Give us this, and the glory of the situ- 
ation of California will be as apparent at the 
East as at the West. There will be a contiu- 
ous line of settlements from the Missouri to the 
Sacramento, and both East and West must 
speedily reap benefits tenfold the cost of the 
gigantic undertaking. 

Events in California have occurred so rapid- 
ly, the country so lately an unknown land has 
so quickly overtaken the civilization of the 
Eastern States, that the incidents of sixteen 
years ago seem as truly antique as if a century 
intervened between them and the present. The 
actors in the most stirrino; scenes of the coast 
still live. It is a delicate task to write of them 
with the same impartiality as if they were dead. 
It is awkward to have the men who have fio-ured 



ca.lifob:n:ia a mother of teeritories. 643 

in history usurping tlie place of posterity and chap. 
criticising the historian's labors. — >,— - 

But though the State has passed through so 1864. 
much, produced so largely, achieved so nobly, 
it is clearly, as yet, on the threshold of its great 
career. With all its drawbacks, which are but 
temporary, so charming is its climate, so rich 
its resources, and so accessible are they to all 
the industrious and energetic, that the intelli- 
gent immigrant now, as he did in the past, and 
doubtless will in the future for many a year, 
feels the force of the Staters motto, and for him- 
self exclaims, JEiireha. 

Steadily the State grows in material wealth ; 
rapidly it improves in its social aspect as a 
home for a free, intelligent-people. Even if the 
next census should not show as great a growth 
in population during the current decennial pe- 
riod as was anticipated a few j^ears ago, it must 
be remembered how that may happen without 
permanent injury to the State. 

California is, like the older Eastern States, a 
busy hive, whence new swarms go off annually, 
yet are not lost to her. From her borders have 
gone out the men who are developing the re- 
sources of a region four times as great as the 
original thirteen States. The Union is a perpet- 
ual gainer, though California may appear to be 
checked by this wonderfully elastic expansion, 
Nevada, Idaho, Western Utah, Arizona, -and 



644 THE HISTOEY OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAP, tlie four northern States of Mexico owe tlieir 
,_^ ■ population chiefly to California. They are fast 
18G4. repaying her for the outlay on them in the 
trade and commerce that they have created for 
her principal port, in the market they make for 
her agricultural products, in their demand for the 
work of her factories and founderies, and the 
gold, silver, copper, and other mineral products 
that 0^0 throuo-h San Francisco into the markets 
of the world. Looking at California in connec- 
tion with the colonies that have gone from her, 
and will ever be tributary to her, there is not 
a more marvellous State growth recoided in all 
the pages of history. 



f 



COTJUT OF CLAIMS. 



EULOGIO F. DE CELTS, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE 
OP EULOGIO DE CELIS, DECEASED, vs. THE UNITED 
STATES. 



FINDINGS OF FACT. 

This case having been heard before the Court of Claims, the court, 
upon the evidence, finds the facts to be as follows : 

I. The claims set forth in the petition were referred to this court by 
the Senate of the United States January 29, 1859, and on the same day, 
a copy of the order of the Senate and the accompanying papers were 
filed herein, and the case entered in the name of Eulogio De Cells. 

II. Subsequently said Eulogio died, and the claimant, who was admit- 
ted to prosecute this action in May, 1874, was duly appointed adminis- 
trator on his estate by the probate court of the county of Los Angeles, 
Cal., October 19, 1869. 

III. On the 3d of March, 1847, said De Cells, now deceased, and J. C. 
Fremont entered into a written contract, a copy of which is annexed to 
the petition and marked Exhibit A. The 600 head of cattle therein 
contracted for were delivered to said Fremont by said De Cells at An- 
gelee, Cal., April 2G, 1847, and on that day said Fremont gave a receipt 
therefor, a copy of which is annexed to the petition, and at the same 
time an acknowledgment of indebtedness set forth in the claimant's 
petition. 

IV. Said Fremont delivered said cattle to one Abel Stearns, upon an 
agreement between them that said Stearns should keep and pasture the 
same for three years, and should receive as a compensation therefor one- 
half the natural increase. Said Stearns thereupon removed the cattle 
into Mexican territory, in Lower California, and pastured them there 
during the three years agreed upon. At the expiration of that period, 
the government not having taken any measures for completing said Fre- 
mont's contract, nor for payment of the purchase-money, he directed 
said Stearns to redeliver said cattle, with one-half the natural increase, 
to said De Cells, and they were so delivered some time in the year 18.52. 

V. In February, 1853, said De Cells imported said cattle into the 
United States via San l>iego, Cal., and there paid to the collector of 
customs $712.58 as duties thereon, without protest. The collector's re- 
ceipt therefor is set forth in Exhibit B, annexed to the petition. 

VI. On said March 3, 1847, said De Cells (since deceased), at said An- 
geles, loaned to said Fremont $2,500, in silver dollars, and received from 
said Fremont therefor a promissory note, a copy of which is annexed to 
the petition, and marked Exhibit D. 

VII. The money so borrowed was expended by said Fiemont in supply- 
ing the wants of the officers and men under his command, but what 
officers and men, and what wants, do not appear: no accounts, vouch- 
ers, reports, or returns thereof having been proved. 

VIII. In the year 1846, and for some time subsequently, said Fremont 
was lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of mounted riflemen, United States 



Army, in coinmaud of a battalion of volnuteers organized in California 
tor the service of the United States. 

In January, 1847, Brig. Gen. S. W. Kearny, then in California with a 
military command, was his superior officer by rank and by orders from 
the War Department, and was commander-in-chief of the land forces of 
tl!(> United States in Upper California. 

IX. For refusing to obey the lawful commands of General Kearny, 
and acting in defiance of his authority: in raising and attempting to 
raise troops; in retaining in service an armed force contrary to the 
orders of said Kearny; in refusing to march such part of his battalion 
as refused to be mustered into service of the United States to Yerba 
Buena, there to be discharged ; in proclaiming himself to be, and in 
assuming to be, the governor of California; and other acts of insubor- 
dination, and for mutiny ; all occurring between January 16, 1847, and 
a time subsequent to the making the contract and executing the prom- 
issory note mentioned in the 3d and Cth findings, said Fremont was 
tried by a court-martial on three charges and twenty-three specifica 
tions, was found guilty on all of them January' 31, 1848, and was sen- 
tenced to be dismissed the service. 

The action of the President thereon is set forth in an order, of which 
the following is a copy : 

"Upon an inspection of the record, I am not satisfied that the facts 
in this case constitute the military crime of ' mutiny.' I am of opinion 
that the second and third charges are sustained by the proof, and that 
the conviction upon these charges warrants the sentence of the court. 
The sentence of the court is therefore approved ; but, in consideration 
of the i)eculiar circumstances of the case, of the previous meritorious 
and valuable services of Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont, and of the fore- 
going recommendations of a majority of the members of the court, the 
penalty of dismissal from service is remitted. 

" Lieutenant Colonel Fremont will accordingly be released from arrest, 
\^ill resume his sword, and report for dntv. 

"JAMES K. FOLK. 

" WashinGt'I'ON, February 16, 1848." 

On the 19th of February, 1848, said Fremont resigned as lieutenant- 
tolonel in the Army, and his resignation was accepted March IS, 1848. 

CONCLUSION OF LAW. 

On the foregoing facts the claimant is not entitled to recover, and the 
petition must be dismissed. 

KiCHAKDSON, J., delivered the opinion of the court: 

The claims upon which this action is founded were referred to the 
court by an order of the Senate of the United States, and arose out of 
the public operations of Lieut. Col. John C. Fremont, in California, in 
the years 1846 and 1847, and events connected with the difficulties and 
■war between this country and the republic of Mexico, which resulted, 
among other things, in the conquest and annexation to the United 
Slates of that part of Mexican territory which was then called Upper 
California. 

These events and the operations of the military and naval forces, and 
the transactions of the public officers of the United States serving in 
that territory immediately before and after its final conquest, excited 



gT^at aud general public interest throughout the coautry at the time of 
their occurrence, aud complete and trustworthy narratives, reports, and 
records thereof have long since been spread before the public through 
the proceedings of a general court-martial, held at Washington in 1847 
and 184S, for the trial of Colonel Fremont, which were communicated 
to Congress by the President, and printed in an executive document, as 
well as through other Congressional documents and the historical wri- 
tings of trustworthy authors. (First session of Thirtieth Congress, 1848, 
Executive Documents of Senate, Nos. 33 and 70; Re2wrt of Committee, Sen- 
ate, Ko. 75; Report of Committee, House, No. 817; Riplexfs War with 
Mexico, vol. 1, 1849; The Mexican War, hy Matisjield, 1848; History of the 
War between the United States and Mexico, by JenMns, 1849; TuthilVs 
History of California, 1846; Bigelow^s Life of Colonel Fremont, 1856; Uj)- 
hamh Life of J. C. Fremont, 1856; Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman, vol. 
1,1875.) 

The claimant has not proved and does not rely upon any special 
authority conferred upon Colonel Fre.uont to contract the obligations 
on the part of the United Stites, set forth in the petition, but rests, 
upon implied authority which he assumes that officer possessed from 
his official relations to the government aud the circumstances in which 
he was placed, as shown or known only through sources of information 
of a historical and official character, open alike to the public as to this 
court. 

The court will take judicial notice of the leading and controlling 
events in the history of the country and of the official relations of the 
principal actors therein to the government; and, in elucidation thereof, 
also of less important transactions of general aud public interest im- 
mediately connected therewith, when they have passed into commonly 
received authentic history. 

The operations of the military and nlival officers of the United States 
n the conquest of California, and immediately subsequent thereto, and 
the action of the executive and legislative branches of the government 
thereon, so far as they were of a public nature and indicate the true 
relation of Colonel Fremont, who performed a leading and conspicuous; 
part therein, to the national government, and his authority or lack of 
authority to bind the United States by contracts entered into by him in 
theoffioial capacity which he claimed as " governor of California," must 
be regarded now, after the lapse of more than thirty years, as such his- 
torical facts of public and general notoriety as may be here judicially 
taken notice of by the court, especially as neither party relies upon any 
other facts bv which his authority can be determined. 

In Meade vs. The United States (9 Wall., 691), on appeal from this 
court, the judges of the Supreme Court took judicial notice of historical 
and national political facts bearing upon the merits of that case, of 
much less general and public interest, notoriety, and comment, than the 
material facts to which we shall have occasion to refer in this opinion, 
and acted upon their own view§ thereof, independently of the specific 
findings which were here made and sent up to them. 

A concise narrative of the public movements of Colonel Fremont in re- 
lation to the conquest of Upper California will afford, and are necessary 
to, a clear understanding of the circumstances under which he claimed 
authority as " governor " thereof, and a summary of the action of Con- 
gress and the Executive will show how far his operations and assumed 
authority were adopted and ratified by the government. 

In the year 1845 John C. Fremont, then a brevet captain of Topo- 
graphical Engineers in the United States Army, but afterwards, in 



iSiG, appointed lieutenant colonel of the then new regiment of mounted 
Tiflemen, who had already distinguished himself by his intrepidity 
and ability in two expeditions of exploration across the continent, was 
sent out by the government at Washigton at the head of a third ex- 
pedition of like character, and especially instructed to find, if possible, 
a new and better route from the base of the western side of the Kocky 
Mountains to the mouth of the Columbia River. 

Arriving in California, then Mexican territory, some time in the winter 
of 1845-'4G, and charged in his instructions not to provoke hostilities 
with the Mexicans, he at once sought an interview with the governor, 
-Castro, and easily obtained from him oral permission to go where he 
pleased, the governor kindly saying that the whole country was open to 
him. This permission Fiemont could not obtain in writing as he desired, 
^nd it was soon revoked by the governor, who ordered the young ex- 
plorer with his party forthwith to leave the country, and followed up the 
•order by the hostile array of a small force of infantry, cavalry, and artil- 
lery, threatening the camp of the exploring party, but making no actual 
attack. 

Fremont, anxious to continue peaceably the important and interesting 
work for which he had been sent out, and then earnestly devoted to the 
line of that duty, seeing no prospects of being permitted to remain in 
Mexican territory unmolested, broke up his camp and proceeded towards 
Oregon. 

Since he had left Washington tlie difSculties between the United 
States and Mexico had increased and war was imininent. Captain Gil- 
lespie, of the Marine Corps, had been dispatched to overtake him, with a 
letter of introduction from Mr. Buchanan, Secretary of State, some oral 
messages, and a letter from Mr. Benton, Senator from Missouri. Captain 
Gillespie, who had crossed through Mexican territory in the guise of an 
English merchant, reached the exploring party and communicated the 
messages and delivered the letters about the 9th of May, 1846. The 
exact terms of the letter from Senator Benton and the oral messages 
have never been given to the public, but they made such an impression 
upon Colonel Fremont as to induce him immediately to abandon his ex- 
pedition of exploration and retrace his steps and return to California. 
Arriving tlioie lie found some of the residents in a state of insurrection 
against the txisting government, and joining the insurgents, he raised 
and orgiiiiizcd a battalion of soldiers for active warfare, taking command 
himselt w ithout appointment from any superior organization, and acting 
wholly upon his own authority and on his own responsibility. 

Early in July, 1840, the revolutionists at Sonoma issued a declaration 
of independence, declaring the country free from the dominion of Mexico, 
and established a nominal government under a flag bearing the emblem 
of H grizzly bear, which gave to them the name of " bear party," and to 
the insurrection the name of "the bear war." 

Before that date, on the 13th of May, 1846, Congress had passed an 
act and the President had issued a proclamation declaring that "by the 
act of the republic of Mexico a state of war exists between that govern- 
ment and the United States" (9 Stat, at Jj., 999), but the knowledge of 
that fact did not reach, and could not have reached Colonel Fremont by 
the then existing means oi conveyance, until long afterward, and he 
continued to carry on his military operations on his individual respon- 
sibility. 

On the 7th of July, 1846, Commodore Sloat of the Navy, in command 
of the Pacific squadron, reached Monterey, and finding Fremont exercis- 
ing military command and a revolution apparently successful, took pos- 



session of that place aud raised the United States flag, whereupon Fre- 
mont hauled down the flag of the grizzly bear aud raised that of his 
own government. And this was the first act of his, after his return to 
California from Oregon, in which he assumed to act in the interest and 
for the benefit of the United States. 

Commodore Sloat supposed that Colonel Fremont was acting under 
orders from the government at Washington, and finding that suc^i was 
not the fact he became alarmed at the authority and responsibility 
which he himself had assumed, and refused to proceed further with Fre- 
mont in his movements for the subjugation of the country. 

On the 15th of Jul^^, 1846, Commodore Stockton arrived, and Sixui 
afterward Commodore Sloat turned over to him the command of the 
Pacific squadron and returned home. 

Commodore Stockton forthwith entered into arrangements witli 
Colonel Fremont to carry on active operations for conquest, aud on the 
23d of July, 1840, appointed the latter " to the command of the Califor- 
nia battalion of United States troops, with the rank of major," and 
thus, so f;ir as he had authority, adopted Colonel Fremont's battalion 
of volunt'-ers into government service. By the joint operations of the 
military and naval forces thus under the command and direction of 
Commodore Stockton, Upper California was substantially and practically 
conquered for the United States before January 1, 1847. 

Brigadier-General Kearny had been sent out under instructionsfrom the 
Secretaryof War, dated June 3 and 18, 1846,in command of an expedition 
" to take the earliest possession of Upper California," and the instruc- 
tions set forth this direction : " Should you conquer and take f)ossession 
of New Mexico aud Upjier California, or considerable places in either, 
you will establish temporary civil government therein, abolishing all 
arbitrary restrictions that may exist, so far as it may be done with 
safety." 

He arrived in California, not without obstruction and some severe en- 
counters with the enemy, about the 1st of January, 1847, and claimed 
to be the head of the civil as well as military power of the United States 
in the Territory. This claim was opposed by Commodore Stockton, on 
the ground that he himself was the conqueror of the country, and as 
such, by the rules of war was entitled to establish a civil government, 
and that the instructions given to General Kearny more than six months 
previously, to establish such government, were conditioned upon his, 
Kearny's, conquering the territory, and did not apply to the actual con- 
dition of affairs which existed on his arrival. 

On the IGth of January, 1847, the very day on which General Kearny 
gave to Colonel Fremont his first written order, in which he directetl 
that no change be made in the organization of his battalion of volunteers, 
or officers appointed in it, without the sanction or approval of General 
Kearney being first obtained. Lieutenant Colonel Fremont was form- 
ally apiointed and commissioned by Commodore Stockton as "governor 
and commander in-chief of the Territory of California." 

In this controversy between Commodore Stockton and General 
Kearny, Fiemout joined the side of the former, and so notified General 
Kearny in writing the day following the receipt of his commission as 
governor, saying that until those officers adjusted between themselves 
the question of rank, he should have to report to and receive orders from 
the commodore. And he setup or attempted to set up and maintain a civil 
government, with himself at the head, "enlisted or retained soldiers in 
his employment, refused to muster them into the service of the United 



states or to discharge them, or to obey the orders aud commands of 
General Kearny." 

Commodore Stockton was succeeded in command of the Pacific squad- 
ron by Commodore Shubrick, who removed all further cause for any 
possible claim of right on the part of Fremont to act under the authority 
of the naval commander, by notifying him in February, 1847, that he 
recognized General Kearny as commander in-chief of the land forces in 
California. And yet Fremont still continued to defy the superior author- 
ity of that otificer, and to assume civil power under the title of governor 
for some time after the claims now in suit were contracted by him in 
that capacity, and until he was obliged to yield by instructions from 
Washington, which could no longer be misunderstood or misconstrued, 
and a few months later he was sent home under arrest for these acts of 
insubordination. 

As to the relative or superior authority among military officers in the 
tield of active operations, when a controversy arises and each assumes 
responsibilities and obligations inconsistent with the authority claimed 
by others, courts are conclusively bound by the determination of the 
executive and legislative branches of the government thereon, as they 
are by the determination of those branches as to how far the conduct of 
military officers acting on their own responsibility and without lawful 
authority previously conferred, is ratified, confirmed, and adopted bj^ 
the government. 

In relation to the military operations of Colonel Fremont in the con- 
quest of Upper California and the controversy between him aud General 
Kearny tliereafter, the action of the Executive and of Congress was 
clear and decided at the time of the occurrence and afterward, and 
leaves nothing in doubt or uncertainty respecting their true official rela- 
tions to the Government of the United States. 

The conduct of Colonel Fremont in raising a battalion and carrying on 
Avar against the Mexican authorities on his own responsibility at the begin- 
uingoftheinsurrectiou,andhisoperations generally up to January 1,1847, 
have been adopted and approved. No complaint was made of his course 
in abandoning the exploring expedition upon which he had been sent out, 
nor of his engaging in private warfare while holding a military commis- 
sion in the United States Army, and he was recognized as continuously 
in the employment of the government during the whole of his opera- 
tions and until he voluntarily resigned. The conspicuous part which 
he took in the conquest, and the value and usefulness of his services, 
were acknowledged by the Secretary of War, Mr. Marcy, and declara- 
tions of approval and commendations for his gallantry were made under 
executive authority. Congress passed an act August 31, 1852 {chap. 
110, sec. 6, 10 Stat., 108) making an appropriation for the pay and 
equipment of, and the settlement of claims for supplies for, the volun- 
teers serving under him during the year 1840, and providing for the 
appointment of a board of officers to examine and report to Congress 
upon all such claims as might be presented for funds advanced and sub- 
sistence aud supplies of all kinds furnished or taken for the use of said 
command "'while thus engaged in the public service." But this act 
iierither ratified nor referred to any service later than the year 1840. 

On the other hand, the Executive fully recognized the authority 
claimed by General Kearny after his arrival in California in January, 
1847, to be at the head of the civil government and to be commander- 
in-chief of all the land forces of the United States within the Territory, 
aud never acknowledged Colonel Fiemont as governor, nor as having any 
right to enlist, equip, and nuiintain officers aud men under his command 



aiul in bis employ iiu lit iudepoudeiitly of General Kearny as bis superior 
officer. Tbe superior authority of General Kearny was officially acknowl- 
edged in a letter from General Scott to tbat officer dated November 3, 
1846; in a communication by tbe Secretary of tbe Navy to Commodore 
Stockton, November 5, 1846 ; in a letter from tbe Secretary of War to 
General Kearny, Jane 11, 1847, and in a communication from him to tbe 
President January 19, 1848, all officially communicated to Congress and 
l)rinted among tbe public documents. And, wbat is perhaps more decis- 
ive, Colonel Fremont was tried by a general court-martial held at Wash- 
ington in 1847 and 1848 on three charges and twenty-three specitications, 
among which it was charged that be proclaimed himself to be and as- 
sumed to act as governor of California, in contempt of the lawful 
authority of his superior officer, Brigadier-General Kearny; that be 
refused to march such i^art of bis battalion to Yerba Buena as refus(Ml 
to be mustered into the service of the United States, there to be dis- 
charged, and other acts of insubordination, and he was found guilty on 
all the charges and specifications, and ordered to be dismissed tbe 
service. Tbe finding of the court-martial was approved by the Presi- 
dent, excei>t tbat be was not satisfied that tbe acts constituted tbe mili- 
tary crime of mutiny, and the sentence was remitted. This was a 
authoritative declaration by the President of the United States, the 
Commander-in-Chief of tbe Army and Navy, that Colonel Fremont un- 
lawfully assumed to be and to act as governor of California, and that 
some of his military operations after January 16, 1847, were conducted 
in insubordination. And Congress has never passed any act for the 
general settlement and payment of the contracts entered into by him 
during that time. 

It is true that Colonel Fremont was sued in England in 1852 upon 
four bills of exchange drawn by him as governor of California Marcli 
18, 1847, upon James Buchanan, Secretary of State, and protested for 
non-payment; that judgment was recovered thereon against him in tbe 
court of exchequer {Gibbs vs. Fremont, 9 Exch., 25) ; and tbat Congress 
by act of March 3, 1853, ch. 101, made an appropriation for the pay- 
ment of that judgment (10 Stat, at L., 759); but that act ratifies and 
adopts no other contracts than those specified therein, and it refers to 
Fremont as "late a lieutenant colonel" and not as " governor of Cali- 
fornia," and provides tbat " before payment the Secretary of the Treasury 
shall be satisfied tbat tbe amount has been expended for the benefit of 
the public service." 

Congress might in like manner provide for the payment of the obli- 
gations incurred by Colonel Fn^mont, which are the foundation of this 
action, but as it has never done so, nor in any form recognized them as 
valid and binding upon the government, the claimant has no remedy in 
this court. 

Tbe only claim earnestly pressed upon us in the argument is on a 
promissory note of which tbe following is a copy : 

"Eight months after date I, J. C. Fremont, governor of California, 
and thereby tbe legal agent of tbe Government of tbe United States of 
North America, in consideration of tbe sum of two thousand five hun- 
dred dollars, being loaned or advanced to me for tbe benefit of said 
Government of tbe United States by Eulogio de Cells, hereby promise 
and oblige myself, in my fiduciary character as governor aforesaid, and 
my successors in office, to pay to said Eulogio de Cells, his heirs, execu- 
tors, administrators, and assigns, tbe aforesaid sum of two thousand 
five hundred dollars without defalcation. It is agreed and understood 



8 

that if tbe aforesaid sum of two thousand live hundred dollars is not 
paid on or before maturity, that it is to draw interest at the rate of two 
per cent, per month from the time it falls due. 

"In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the 
seal of the territory to be affixed at the city de Los Angeles, the capital 
of California, this third day of March, in the year eighteen hundred 
and forty-seven. 

"J. C. FRfiMONT, 

" Governor of'Galifornia.''^ 

The exact purpose for which Colonel Fremont used the money ob- 
tained upon this note is not found by the court and was not proved be- 
cause he rendered no account and returned no vouchers. As he was 
carrying on a civil government the authority for which was expressly 
disavowed by the executive, and to some extent maintained a command 
in defiance of the authority of his superior officer, enlisting men and 
lefusingto muster them into the United States service, for all of which 
he could draw no money or supplies in the ordinary and legal methods 
])rovided in the service, we may j)resume that the money borrowed by 
him was used for purposes not recognized as legitimate by the govern- 
ment, or at least in the absence of proof we are not at liberty to pre- 
sume otherwise. And so the claimant does not stand in the position 
of having advanced money which the United States have had the benefit 
of, if that were his claim independently of the express contract proved by 
the promissory note sued upon. Even if Colonel Fremont were then the 
lawful military governor of California, it would not necessarily follow 
that the United States would be liable for money borrowed by him in 
his official capacity, without express proof, at least, that it was used in 
the recognized public service. {The Jbioj/d acceptance case, 7 Wall., 666.) 

Another claim set nj) in the jietition is for the price of 600 head of 
cattle sold to Colonel Fremont under a contract of March 3, 1847. These 
cattle were delivered April 26, 1847, when Fremont gave to the claim- 
ant's intestate a certificate of acknowledgment, certifying that there 
was due to him from the United States the sum of $16,975, subject to 
interest at 2 per cent, per month after the expiration of eight months 
from April 18, 1817, until paid. The claimant now seeks payment of 
tlifit obligation, and $5,000 damages, and interest on the whole. 

1 he facts in relation to these cattle are that when they were de- 
li\» red to Fremont he had no use for them, and he turned them over to 
one Stearns to be pastured for three years at the compensation of one- 
hiiH their natural increase. Stearns drove them into Lower California^ 
in ^Mexican territory, and there pastured them on his own land for the 
time agreed upon. At the expiration of that time, Fremont, being no 
lon.i;er in the i)ublic service, having resigned his military commission, 
and not being able himself to j)ay for the same, and the United States 
Go\ ernment not having adopted or ratified his contract, redelivered all 
the cattle and half the increase to the original owner as agreed upon, 
and they were accepted by him on the land of said Stearns in Mexico. 
This claim, besides being open to all the objections found against the 
promissory note sued on, is even less meritorious on. the part of the 
claimant, because the property was returned to him, and it does not ap- 
pear that he suffered any loss. 

Still another claiuj is set forth for $712.58 paid for duties assessed and 
collected by the collector of the port of San Diego on the cattle when 



9 

brought from Mexican territory, after having- been pastured there three 
years, into the United States, 

Against the consideration of this claim by the court the assistant at- 
torney-general sets up the plea of want of jurisdiction, on the authority 
of Nichols vs. The United States (7 Wali., 122). It was held in that 
case, as we have repeatedly held, that to claims for the recovery back of 
taxes and duties illegally assessed, for which special provisions are 
made by statute, giving jurisdiction to other tribunals and other courts, 
the general jurisdiction of this court does not attach. {Kaufman vs. The 
United States, 11 O. Cls. R., 659; Boughton vs. The United States, 12 
C. Cls. R., 330; Wimiisimmet Company and other cases vs. The United 
States, 12 C. Cls. R., 319; Walker vs. The United States, 12 C. Cls. R., 
408). And the position of the assistant attorney-general would be cor- 
rect if the claimant were hereof his motion voluntarily invoking the juris- 
diction of the court. But this claim was specially referred to us by an 
order of the Senate of the United States under that provision of the 
statute which expressly confers jurisdiction upon this court over "all 
claims which may be referred to it by either House of Congress." {Act 
of February 24, 1855, ch. 122, § 1, 10 Stat., 612, now Revised Stat., § 1059.) 

Upon the question whether or not we have jurisdiction of such a claim 
thus referred to us, it is unnecessary now to express a final opinion, be- 
cause there are two substantial grounds of defence on the merits which 
have been fully argued, while the jurisdictional question was not con- 
sidered by the claimant's counsel at the trial. First, the duties must be 
held to have been voluntarily paid, no protest or objection having been 
proved {Revised Statutes, § 3010-3014, and the acts revised therein); 
and, second, it does not appear that they were not legally and properly 
assessed and collected. The claimant's intestate owned the cattle in 
Mexican territory and regularly imported them into the United States, 
and thereby became liable to pay duties thereon, even although they 
had previously been in this country. {Customs Regulations, Treasury 
Department, 1874, Articles 373 378, and like regulations and laics pre- 
viously existing.) 

On the whole case the claimant has no legal cause of action, and his 
petition must be dismissed. 
No. 1785 2 



INDEX 



INDEX. 



Alaecon finda mouth of the Colorado, 11. 

Abaeoni's grand scheme for California, 57. 

Alvakado's insurrection successful, 142. 

Alcaldes of San Francisco, 216. 

Alta Califoenia, 292. 

Adams & Co., 405. 

American Flag hoisted at Monterey, 180. 

San Francisco, 181. 
Aeea of the State, 275. 
Ageicultuee, 353, 611. 
Anian, Straits of, 16, 22. 
Aborigines of California, 88. 

B. 

Beannan, Samuel, 214. 

Baetlett, Washington A., 216. 

Beace's crime and punishment, 488. 

Bakee's eulogy on Broderick, 564. 

Beancifoete established, 105. 

Banished persons, list of, 509. 

Balboa's discovery of the South Sea, 4. 

Beae Flag, 173. 

Bennett elected Governor, 282. 

Benton, Colonel, writes to California, 254. 

Biglee, Governor, and the Chinese, 870. 

Beitish plots to get California, 179. 

Brown, Captain John, 118. 

Boscana's account of the Aborigines, 90.. 

Brodeeiok, D. C, 305, 417. 

elected Senator, 546. 



648 rNT>Ex. 

BuoDERioK and Gwin, 549. 

on tlie stump, 555. 

death of, 563. 
Boundary question vetoed, 275. 
Bulkhead bill vetoed, 574. 
Bulletin, Evening, 408. 

c. 

Cattle eodeos, 157. 
Casey, James P., 432. 

and Cora hung, 446. 
Cabeillo goes up the North American coast, 12 
California, meaning of the word, 13. 

under Mexican rule, 121. 

independence of, 152. 

in 1849-50, 831. 

bill for admission passes Senate, 319. 

admitted to the Union, 321. 

a mother of Territories, 343. 

Star, 215. 
Calm half century, 111. 
Capitol on wheels, 391. 
Charities and benevolence, 635. 
Calhoun's eiforts for Slavery, 250, 313. 
Clay's Compromise Measures, 309, 317, 321. 
Climate of California, 629. 
Chinese, 369. 

puzzle, 637. 
Cities, incorporation of, 289. 
CoETEz's exploration on Mexican coast, 7. 
Commerce while under Mexico, 158. 
Congress on California, 249. 
Convention, expenses of, 277. 
Conservative influences, 343. 
Commerce, 355. 

Compensation for misfortunes, 625. 
Constitutional Convention, 262. 
Constitution adopted, 282. 

provisions of, 277. 



LNDEX. 649 

Cook, Captain, beware, 116. 
Colonial SpanisJi scheme, 126. 
Common law adopted, 287. 
Columbus's theory of the South Sea, 3. 
Columbia, warning against ship, 117. 
County names, 2'J9. 
CuREENCT in 1849, 328. 

questions, 595. 
Chdeoh, first Protestant, 294. 

• 

D. 

Dashaways, 633. 

Deake on coast of California, 22. 

probably in San Francisco Bay, 23. 

Deake's report of cHmate and gold of California, 21, 26. 

Dragons that defended the coast, 2. 

Deseeet's delegates to California, 287. 

Dkess of natives, 158. 

Demooeat, first meeting, 295. 

Dwinelle's Colonial History, 107. 

Difficulty between Kearny, Fremont, and Stockton, 207. 

Domestic habits of natives, 156. 

Downey, Governor, 573. 

Douglas's efforts for the admission of California, 254. 

Deoughts, 021. 

Duelling in California, 509. 



E. 

Earthquakes, 116. 
EcnEANDRiA, Governor, 130. 
Emigeants, suffering of, 217. 

rush of, 237. 
Exiles attempt to return to San Francisco, 486. 
Exports of treasure, 601. 
Expoets and imports, 613. 
Educational condition, 631. 

F. 

Franciscans tako Jesuit Missions of Lo;vcr California, 
occupy Upper California, 72. 



650 INDEX. 

Feaudulknt land claims, 539. 

Frkmont and Castro confront each other, 162. C^S* 

threatened by Castro, 103. 

overtaken by Lieutenant Gillespie, 1(JG. 

turns back to revolutionize the Government, 1&7. 

battalion, 173, 201. 

pursues Castro, 174. 

and Sloat, 182. 

pardons Jesus Pico, 203. 

as Governor of California^ 208. 

disobeys orders, 211. 

is disgraced, 212. 

indignation at, 223. 
Financial storm, 402. 
Finances of the State, 410. 
Financial breakers, 525. 
Fires in San Francisco, 333. 
Field, Californians on the, 597. 

FiLLIBTTSTEEISM, 393. 

Floods, 617. 

FiGUEEOA, 134. 

his labors and death, 13&. 
Floees's revolt, 191. 
Fugitive Slave Act, 550. 

G. 

Gkaiiam, Isaac,, 142. 

arrested, 146. 
Geass Valley, 389. 

Galvez's expeditions to Upper California, 72. 
Gambling, 337. 

Geeen, a. a., obtains Pueblo papers, 490. 
Gkeeley, Horace, at San Francisco, 558. 
GwiN, Dr., 417. 

on the stump, 557. 
GovEBNOES of Cahfornia under Spain, 123. 

Mexico, 151. 
Gold, discovery of, 226. 
how found, 231. 
Dana's report, 232. 



INDEX. 651 

Gold, Sutter and Marshall on, 232. 

Isaac Humphrey ou, 283. 

Baptiste on, 234. 
Gulf of California explored by Ugarte, 61. 

H. 

Habeas Corpus, how respected by Vigilance Committee, 496^ 

Hanging, 287. 

Haeboes, why difficult to find on the Pacific, 40. 

Hetheeington's crime and punishment, 487. 

IIijae's colony, 136. 

Hounds, the, 293. 

Houses in 1849-50, 331. 

I. 

Interest, rate of, 286. 

Ide's Proclamation of Independence, 171. 

Indian customs, 91. 

wars, 359. 

reservations, 367. 
Indians, 636. 

J. 

Jealousy of foreigners, 116. 

Jesuit missions in Lower California, 51. 

life at, 64. 
Jesuits' account of Lower California, 68. 
Jiggees, remedy for, 110. 

Jones, Commodore, mistake ia hoisting the flag, 148. 
JuNiPEEO Seeea, 81. 

characteristics of, 82. 

his life, by Palou, 83. 

K. 

Keaent, General, in trouble, 195. 
King, James, 407. 
King, James, shot, 435. 

Rev. T. Staee, 585. 

death of, 587. 



G52 INDEX. 

Kino, his antecedents, 42. 

his attempts to colonize Lower Califoi'uia, 38. 

L. 

Land claims, 533. 

Land Commissioners, 535. 

Latham elected Senator, 573. 

Law in California, 246. 

Language : Missionaries' devices to convey ideas, 38. 

Legislature, first, 284. 

Libels, 275. 

Limantoue's claim, 382, 539. 

Loyalty of California, 577. 

Loretto, mission of, 44. 

Lower California proved to be a peninsula, 52. 

Lotteries, 276. 

Ltnoh Law, 339, 428. 

M. 
Magellan on the Pacific, 5. 
Mason, Governor, report of, 227. 
Marysville, 387. 
MoKee, Eedick, 364. 
Mervine, repulse of, 193. 
Mendoza's fruitless expeditions, 10. 
Mendocino visited by Viscaino, 33. 
Cabrillo, 12. 
Micheltorena's arrival, 147. 
Mines, yield of, in 1848-56, 347. 
Mineral discoveries, 605 
Miracle at Loretto, 46. 
Missions in Upper California, order of foundation, 86, 87. 

theory of, 98, 108. 

population of, 113. 

meridian of prosperity, 129. 

secularized, 130. 

jurisdiction of, divided, 135. 

government of, 100. 
Mining processes. 349. 



INDEX. 653 



Mining, various methods of, 003. 

stock mania, GOT. 
McGowAN, Edwards, ubiquity, 485. 
MoEAL aspects, 633. 
MoNTEEEY discovered, 30. 
Mormons arrive, 214. 
McDouGALL, elected Senator, 579. 

N. 

Natives of California, as found by Drake, 25. 

Natives of California, 153. 

great horsemen, 154. 
Newspapers on the Vigilance Committee, 437. 
Negeoes, question of free, 271. 
Negroes in California, 37G. 

O. 

Otondo, Admiral, attempts to colonize, 37. 



Padrez, 136. 

Placerville, 389. 

Page, Bacon & Co., 403. 

Pacific Eailroad, 642. 

Palou's life of Junipero Serra, 83. 

Perley challenges Broderick, 553. 

Peesidios, 101. 

People's party organization, 519. 

Priests' and soldiers' quarrels, 102. 

Pio Pioo, Governor, 150. 

Pioneer miners, 245. 

Pious fund, 67. 

diverted, 127. 

sold, 128. 
Polk and the Pacific Coast, 253. 
Political blunders, 341. 
Politics of California, 413 
Portilla's treachery, 133. 
Population of the State, 357. 



654 INDEX. 

Pont mail, 641. 
Pueblo papers, 491. 

Vigilance Committee buy them, 495. 
Pueblos, 105, 106. 

various kinds, 109. 

was San Francisco one ? 107. 
Pulpit on the Vigilance Committee, 439. 



Qu.\RTZ crushing, 350, 



Q. 



R. 



Randolph, Edmund, 589. 
Revenue laws extend to California, 261. 
Reform city government, 521. 
Riley, General Bennett, 247, 262. 
Russians in California, 118, 120. 
Ruen to California, 237. 

S. 

San Franoisoo, mysterious allusions to, 31. 

found by Portala, 77. 

its growth, 289, 291. 

in 1856, 881. 
Sacramento, 297, 386. 
State resources, 601. 
Slavery, 248, 269, 315. 
San Diego discovered, 29. 

settled, 76. 
Seal of the State, 278. 
Seward on admission of California, 313. 
Senatorship, United States, 421. 
Smith, Jedediah S., first overlander, 124. 
Smith, Persifer F., 247. 
Smith, Peter, judgments, 384. 
Sloat, Commodore, at Monterey, 176. 
alarmed, 182, 184. 
returns home, 186. 



IISTDEX. 

SoLiz's insurrection, 130. 

SoNOEA captured by American insurgents, 170. 

School, first public, 291. 

Stockton, arrives at San Francisco, 184. 

proclamation of, 186. 

his marcli to Los Angeles, 189. 

recovers his lost fruits, 193. 

marches from San Diego to Los Angeles, 193, 
Scott, Dr., and the Vigilance Committee, 511. 
Squatter riots, 337. 
Suttee and Micheltorena, 149. 
Sutter, John A., 302. 
Suits against the Vigilance Committee, 515. 

T, 

Tayloe's first message, 307. 
Tent age of California, 325. 
Treaty of Oouengo, 205. 

ignored, 209. 
between United States and Mexico, 235. 
Teeey, Judge, in prison, 477. 

friends at work, 480. 

friends in United States Senate, 483. 

freed, 497. 

feted, 498. 

and Broderick, 561. 

escapes unpunished, 667. 
TiBEEA, Salva, 43. 

his death, 58. 

u. 

Ugaete in Lower California, 48. 

death of, 61. 
United States Senators on Union, 590. 
Union meeting, May, 1861, 579. 
Ulloa's explorations on Lower California t^oast, fl. 
Unconstitutional debt, 527. 

assumed by tlie people. 531. 



655 



656 INDEX. 



V. 

Vessel, first one built in California, 60. 
Veneg-a's History of California, 70. 
ViscAiNo's explorations of the coast, 28. 
results of, 35. 
did he visit San Francisco? 32. 
visits Mendocino, 33. 
Vigilance Committee of 1856, 432, 461. 

and Governor Johnson, 458. 

and General Sherman, 458. 

and General Wool, 458. 

organization, 401. 

and President of United States, 468. 

board the Julia, 473. 

collision with authorities, 475. 

Governor Johnson repudiates commission to, 482. 

disbands, 499. 

final parade, 502. 

address of Executive Committee, 503. 

rooms inspected, 505. 

winding up, 507. 

summary of their work, 509. 
VioTOKiA, Governor, 131. 

resigns, 133. 



Whalers' visits, 160. 
Wages in 1849, 329. 
Walker, William, 393. 

schemes of, 397. 

death of, 398. 
Webstee on admission of California, 313. 
Weller on Terry and the Vigilance Committee, 484, 

X. 

XiMENES discovers Lower California, 8. 



INDEX. 

Y. 

Yankee Sullivan, 449. 
Yeeba, Buena, 215. 

Z. 

Zabriskie, Colonel, on Vigilance Oommittee, 481, 482. 



657 



«..^ 



